UK Storm Names 2026-27: The Full List, From Austen and Boelo to Wende

The Met Office, Met Éireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) published 21 storm names for 2026-27 on 1 September 2026, and as of 5 November the next storm to be named will be Chloe. Only two names have been used so far: Storm Austen, named on 20 October 2026, and Storm Boelo, named on 22 October 2026, according to the Met Office UK Storm Centre. Below is the full list in order, who submitted each name and how the scheme decides when a storm gets one.

What is the full list of UK storm names for 2026-27?

The table follows the Met Office’s table of names, with pronunciations as the Met Office gave them in its 1 September announcement. “Submitted by” is the service that put the name on the list. It is not the service that named a storm. The Met Office page does not say which of the three named Austen or Boelo, so we do not either.

Letter	Name	Pronunciation	Submitted by	Status on 5 November 2026
A	Austen	-	Met Éireann	Named 20 October 2026; impact 23 October 2026
B	Boelo	Boo-loh	KNMI	Named 22 October 2026; impact 24-25 October 2026
C	Chloe	-	Met Office	Next name
D	Dano	Dah-noh	KNMI	Not yet used
E	Evelyn	-	Met Éireann	Not yet used
F	Finn	-	Met Office	Not yet used
G	Gwendolyn	Gwen-duh-lin	KNMI	Not yet used
H	Heather	-	Met Éireann	Not yet used
I	Ivy	-	Met Office	Not yet used
J	Jade	-	KNMI	Not yet used
K	Kilian	-	Met Éireann	Not yet used
L	Laoise	Lee-sha	Met Éireann	Not yet used
M	Miriam	-	Met Éireann	Not yet used
N	Nicola	-	Met Office	Not yet used
O	Olaf	-	KNMI	Not yet used
P	Phelim	Fay-lim	Met Éireann	Not yet used
R	Ruban	-	Met Office	Not yet used
S	Shaun	-	Met Office	Not yet used
T	Theo	-	Met Office	Not yet used
V	Vesna	Vehs-nuh	KNMI	Not yet used
W	Wende	Vhen-duh	KNMI	Not yet used

Sources: Met Office UK Storm Centre (checked 5 November 2026) and Met Office announcement of 1 September 2026. Chloe has no date yet; the Met Office table shows no date for any name from Chloe to Wende.

The spelling Kilian, with one “l”, is the one on both the Met Office and Met Éireann pages.

Which service submitted the most names?

None did. The list has seven names from each service, 21 in total.

Service	Names	Count
Met Office	Chloe, Finn, Ivy, Nicola, Ruban, Shaun, Theo	7
Met Éireann	Austen, Evelyn, Heather, Kilian, Laoise, Miriam, Phelim	7
KNMI	Boelo, Dano, Gwendolyn, Jade, Olaf, Vesna, Wende	7

The count is our own tally of the Met Office’s list. The list has 21 names because it runs through the alphabet from A to W with Q and U left out, and with no names for X, Y or Z.

What happened with Storm Austen and Storm Boelo?

The Met Office table gives Austen a naming date of 20 October 2026 and an impact date of 23 October 2026. For Boelo it gives 22 October 2026 as the date named and 24-25 October 2026 as the date of impact on the UK, Ireland or the Netherlands.

In its release of 23 October 2026, the Met Office said that “Storm Boelo follows Storm Austen, the first named storm of the season”, and it issued amber warnings for Saturday night and Sunday, 24 and 25 October.

When does a UK storm get a name?

The Met Office says: “In the UK a storm will be named when it has the potential to cause disruption or damage which could result in an amber or red warning.” The decision is usually about wind, though rain (which can cause flooding) or snow are also considered.

The three services work as one group. When the criteria are met, the Met Office, Met Éireann or KNMI can name a storm, “taking the name from the latest list in alphabetical order”. The group names a storm when it has the potential to cause medium or high impacts in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, typically when an amber or red warning is expected.

That is why the next name is Chloe: the names run in order, and Austen and Boelo are the only two that the table shows as used.

Two other rules from the Met Office:

• Names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z are left out, to match the US National Hurricane Center conventions.
• Ex-hurricanes keep the name given by the US National Weather Service, for example “ex-hurricane Ophelia”.

The Met Office also lists two other storm-naming groups, a south-western group (Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium and Luxembourg) and a northern group (Norway, Sweden and Denmark).

Where do the 2026-27 storm names come from?

The Met Office has issued a list each September since Name our Storms launched in 2015, and says the scheme is now entering its twelfth year. The list runs from early September to late August the following year; Met Éireann gives 31 August 2027 as the end of this season.

According to the Met Office’s 1 September 2026 announcement:

• More than 40,000 names were submitted to the Met Office by members of the public last year. Chloe was nominated more than 130 times.
• The announcement tells the stories behind Finn, Ivy, Nicola and Theo. Ivy is a nine-month-old Labrador puppy, and Theo is a cat that hid before thunderstorms.
• Met Éireann marked its 90th anniversary. Austen honours Austen Nagle, first director of the Irish Meteorological Service, and Evelyn honours Evelyn Murphy, the first woman to present the weather on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).
• KNMI picked from more than 3,000 public suggestions. Boelo is a nearly extinct name from the East Groningen region.
• Shaun was chosen by public vote in a collaboration with Aardman, the studio behind Shaun the Sheep.

The Met Office says the names avoid private companies and brands and are not chosen by popularity or the number of submissions.

Do people act on storm warnings?

The Met Office cited surveys after Storm Goretti in January 2026: 93% of people in the amber warning area were aware of the warnings, and 88% of them took action. Holly Clements, Met Office Head of Warnings and Guidance, said: “For more than a decade, storm naming has helped us communicate the risks from severe weather more effectively.”

Where can you track the storm names?

Print the UK storm names 2026-27 tracker to log each storm’s named and impact dates as the season goes on; Austen and Boelo are filled in as of 5 November 2026. The Met Office table is the place to check for the next update. For the weeks ahead, see the UK Christmas bank holidays and the rail closures over Christmas, and keep the November 2026 and December 2026 printable calendars to hand. A recent UK sky story is in our northern lights guide for Scotland.