The Named Storms Catalogue: unlocking learnings from past events

Abstract. Extratropical cyclones are one of the leading causes of widespread damage from extreme weather over the United Kingdom and western Europe due to their strong winds and heavy precipitation. Storm naming has been used as a strategy to communicate risks and enhance preparedness of the general public and key affected sectors. Given the first ten seasons of storm naming, the opportunity arises to collect and characterise for the first time the set of named storms identified by the UK Storm Centre. Collecting information about these events enables to objectively assess what makes them different from other storms and from one another; and supports preparedness for future events.

This paper introduces the Named Storms Catalogue as an open-source dataset accessible from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18877013. The catalogue contains a set of storm tracks, storm development and hazard metrics that allow to objectively describe, rank and compare past named storm events, unlocking learning opportunities by the preparedness and resilience as well as the research communities.

This dataset introduction describes the content and metrics and the methodologies used to develop them, while a set of case studies highlights how the catalogue can be used to assess and compare past events. The paper presents a preliminary climatology for UK named storms and discusses some ongoing lines of research that the authors are exploring, such as using the metrics included in the catalogue to distinguish named events from others, and to identify different types of storms within the set.