2025–26 European windstorm season
| 1Strongest storm is determined by lowest pressure and maximum recorded non-mountainous wind gust is also included for reference. 2026–2027 → |
The 2025–2026 European windstorm season is an upcoming season of severe weather system naming in Europe, the eleventh overall. It comprises a year, from 1 September to 31 August, except shifted a month later in the Eastern Mediterranean Group. The storm names will be announced before the start of the season on the 1 September 2025. This was the seventh season in which the Netherlands participated (through KNMI) 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 ninth time, joined by Luxembourg's agency (Southwestern group). This is the fifth season of the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Mediterranean groups, in which they comprised respectively: Greece, Israel and Cyprus; and Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta.
Background and naming
Definitions and naming conventions
There is no universal definition of what constitutes a windstorm in Europe, nor is there a universal system of naming storms.
In the Western Group, consisting of the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, a storm is named if one of those meteorological agencies issues an orange warning (known as amber in the UK per its National Severe Weather Warning Service system), which generally requires a likelihood of widespread sustained wind speeds greater than 65 km/h, or widespread wind gust speeds over 110 km/h. Required speeds vary slightly by agency and by season. Likelihood of on-land human impacts and inherent severity of the system further factors in whether to use the next pre-listed name.[1][2][3]
The Southwest Group conducts its own naming (Spain, Portugal, and France).[4]
For Greece to call upon the next name of its Group, the criteria are when forecast winds are above 50 km/h over land plus expected to impact infrastructure significantly.[5] For Denmark to do so, a windstorm must have an hourly average windspeed of at least 90 km/h (25 m/s).[6]
The Meteorology Department of the Free University of Berlin (FUB) names all high and low-pressure systems that affect Europe, though they do not assign names to any actual storms.[7] A windstorm that is associated with one of these pressure systems is sometimes recognized by the name given to the associated pressure system by the FUB. Named windstorms that have been recognized by a European meteorological agency are described in this article.
Invoking the next listed name in Europe is commonly by a storm's forecast conditions in the next day or so – as public awareness and preparedness are often cited as the main purpose.[2] A nascent storm very occasionally does not become or remain a storm when reaching the forecasting authority.
Western Group (United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands)
In 2015, the Met Office and Met Éireann asked the public for name suggestions; its first "Name our Storms" promotion. The offices produced the publicly nominated list for 2015–2018, common to both the UK and Ireland, with the Netherlands taking part from 2019 onwards.
The names chosen for the 2025–2026 season in the UK, Ireland and Netherlands will be released at the beginning of the season.[8] For a windstorm to be named, the United Kingdom's Met Office, Ireland's Met Éireann, or the Netherlands' Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) have to issue an amber weather warning, most often for wind, but a storm can also be named for amber warnings of rain and snow (e.g. Storm Arwen in 2021).[9]
Storm names will be announced on or before 1 September 2025
South-Western Group (France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg)
The names will be chosen at the beginning of the season.[10]
Storm names will be announced on or before 1 September 2025
Central Mediterranean Group (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta)
The names will be chosen for the 2025–26 season for Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta on or before 1 September 2025.[11]
Storm names will be announced on or before 1 September 2025
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 2024–25 season in Greece, Israel and Cyprus:[12]
Storm names will be announced on or before 1 October 2025
Northern Group (Denmark, 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, 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 by one of the other groups.[13]
Atlantic ex-tropical cyclones
Ex-tropical cyclones (subtropical storms, tropical storms, or hurricanes) that directly impacted a European country from a 2024 Atlantic hurricane which became a European windstorm and retained its name as assigned by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida.
Season summary
All storms named by European meteorological organisations in their respective forecasting areas, as well as Atlantic hurricanes that transitioned into European windstorms and retained the name assigned by the National Hurricane Center:
Storms
Season effects
| Storm | FUB name | Dates active | Highest wind gust | Lowest pressure | Named by | Countries affected | Fatalities (+missing) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
See also
- Weather of: 2025
- Tropical cyclones in: 2025, 2026
- 2025–26 North American winter
- 2025–26 Asian winter
References
- ^ "Weather Warnings Explanation". Met Éireann The Irish Meteorological Service. Met Éireann. Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
- ^ a b "UK Storm Centre". Met Office. UK Met Office. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
- ^ "KNMI waarschuwingen" (in Dutch). KNMI. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
- ^ Leitao, Paula; Roulet, Bernard; Rey, Jaime (September 2018). "Storm naming: the First Season of Naming by the South-west Group: Spain-Portugal-France" (PDF). The European Forecaster (Newsletter of the WGCEF) (23): 33–37. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
- ^ Kotroni, V.; Lagouvardos, K.; Bezes, A.; Dafis, S.; Galanaki, E.; Giannaros, C.; Giannaros, T.; Karagiannidis, A.; Koletsis, I.; Kopania, T.; Papagiannaki, K.; Papavasileiou, G.; Vafeiadis, V.; Vougioulas, E. (2021). "Storm Naming in the Eastern Mediterranean: Procedures, Events Review and Impact on the Citizens Risk Perception and Readiness". Atmosphere. 12 (11): 1537. Bibcode:2021Atmos..12.1537K. doi:10.3390/atmos12111537.
- ^ "Storms in Denmark since 1891" (PDF). dmi.dk. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
- ^ "Naming the Weather: Institute of Meteorology at Freie Universität Assigns Names to Weather Highs and Lows for the Year Ahead: Starting 25 September 2013". Freie Universität Berlin Office of Communication and Marketing. Freie Universität Berlin. 23 September 2013. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
- ^ "Weather responders included in 2023/24 storm names". Met Office. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
- ^ "UK Storm Centre". Met Office.
- ^ Meteorología, Agencia Estatal de. "Borrascas con gran impacto de la temporada 2024-2025 - Agencia Estatal de Meteorología - AEMET. Gobierno de España". www.aemet.es.
- ^ "Storm Naming, Denominazione delle tempeste | Meteo Aeronautica Militare". meteoam.it. 1 September 2024. Archived from the original on 1 September 2024.
- ^ "פורסמה רשימת שמות אירועי מזג האוויר המשמעותיים לעונת 2024/25" (in Hebrew). Israel Meteorological Service. 9 September 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
- ^ "Aktion Wetterpate". www.wetterpate.de. 2 October 2019.