2023–24 European windstorm season
The 2023–2024 European windstorm season was the ninth season of the European windstorm naming in Europe. It comprised a year, from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. This was the fifth season in which the Netherlands participated, alongside the United Kingdom's Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann in the western group. The Portuguese, Spanish, French and Belgian meteorological agencies collaborated for the seventh time, joined by Luxembourg's agency. This was the third season in which Greece, Israel and Cyprus, and Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta named storms which affected their areas.
Background and naming
Definitions and naming conventions
There is no universal definition of what constitutes a windstorm in Europe, nor is there a universally accepted system of naming storms. For example, in the Western Group, consisting of the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, a storm is named if one of the meteorological agencies in those countries issues an orange warning, which generally requires a likelihood of widespread sustained wind speeds greater than 65 km/h, or widespread wind gust speeds over 110 km/h. Both the likelihood of impact and the potential severity of the system are considered when naming a storm. The Southwest Group of Spain, Portugal, and France share a similar storm-naming scheme, though their names differ from those used by the Western Group. In Greece, however, naming criteria were established for storms when the storm's forecast winds are above 50 km/h over land, with the wind expected to have a significant impact to infrastructures. In Denmark, a windstorm must have an hourly average windspeed of at least 90 km/h.The Meteorology Department of the Free University of Berlin names all high and low pressure systems that affect Europe, though they do not assign names to any actual storms. A windstorm that is associated with one of these pressure systems will at times be recognized by the name assigned to the associated pressure system by the FUB. Named windstorms that have been recognized by a European meteorological agency are described in this article.
Naming conventions used in Europe are generally based on conditions that are forecast, not conditions that have actually occurred, as public awareness and preparedness are often cited as the main purpose of the naming schemes–for example, a reference. Therefore, an assignment of a storm name does not mean that a storm will actually develop.
Western Group (United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands)
In 2015, the Met Office and Met Éireann announced a project to name storms as part of the "Name our Storms" project for windstorms and asked the public for suggestions. The meteorological offices produced a full list of names for 2015–2016 through 2017–2018, common to both the United Kingdom and Ireland, with the Netherlands taking part from 2019 onwards. Names in the United Kingdom will be based on the National Severe Weather Warning Service.The following names were chosen for the 2023–2024 season in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. For a windstorm to be named, the United Kingdom's Met Office, Ireland's Met Eireann, or the Netherlands' Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute have to issue an amber weather warning, preferably for wind, but a storm can also be named for amber warnings of rain and snow.
South-Western Group (France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg)
This was the seventh year in which the meteorological agencies of France, Spain and Portugal named storms that affected their areas.Central Mediterranean Group (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta)
The following names were chosen for the 2023–2024 season in Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta.Eastern Mediterranean Group (Greece, Israel and Cyprus)
The Eastern Mediterranean Group works slightly differently compared to other naming lists; instead of ending a season on 31 August of that year, they end the season on 30 September of that year. These are the names that were chosen for the 2023–24 season in Greece, Israel and Cyprus.Northern and North-Western Group (Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden)
This naming group, like the naming from the Free University of Berlin, does not use a naming list but names storms when it has not received a name by any other meteorological service in Europe and is projected to affect Denmark, Iceland, Norway or Sweden.Central/FUB naming Group (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary)
Like the Northern Group, the Free University of Berlin names storms based on low pressures across the continent and does not use a naming list. The storms listed below were strong enough or were anticipated to cause equal or more disruption than if it were named either by one of the other groups.Season summary
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