We are promised a damp start with heavy rain and strong winds for this week’s Wednesday work party. This is the tail-end of Hurricane Lee made manifest in Southwick’s nature reserve, what the Met Office likes to call Atlantic-dominated weather.
September is the beginning of the official storm season, when the Met Office announces the list of names chosen for the winter’s most severe weather. This year they are:
Agnes, Babet, Ciaran, Debi, Elin, Fergus, Gerrit, Henk, Isha, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Lilian, Minnie, Nicholas, Olga, Piet, Regina, Stuart, Tamiko, Vincent, and Walid
Most of the names were put forward by the public but some have come from people who work at the Environment Agency, National Resources Wales and Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure. One name honours an official in the Scottish Government’s flooding team.
In the winter of 2022-23, only two storms, Antoni and Betty, were named by the Met Office although two other storms that had been named by other organisations reached the UK’s shores. Let’s hope the 2023-24 storm season treats us well.
Header: satellite image of Hurricane Lee
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 