Effort to avoid naming weather events after candidates

MET Eireann said they needed to be sure that none of this year's storms shared a name with any of the candidates for the forthcoming Presidential election.

- BY KEN FOXE

ALERT Storm Amy bears down heavy on Ireland

In discussions over the list for 2025 and 2026, the Irish meteorological service said they were not yet sure who was running for the presidency, but wanted to alert colleagues in the UK and the Netherlands it was happening.

An email to them said: "We certainly couldn't have a live storm with the name of a candidate during the election."

UK forecasters were also worried about using the Irish name Fiadh for a storm this season because they thought it sounded a little bit too much like "fear".

However, in discussions, Met Eireann reassured them of its far less sinister pronunciation by sending an audio recording of how it actually sounds.

An email said the Irish meteorological service wanted to keep it in contention for this year's list.

Met Éireann said it had some "nice stories behind it" and was the only Irish language name on this year's list.