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List of historical European windstorm names

The List of historical European windstorm names includes notable extratropical cyclones that have impacted Europe and were assigned names by national meteorological services or academic institutions, in association with EUMETNET standards.

Background and History

European windstorm names are used by national meteorological services in Europe to identify high-impact extratropical cyclones. Unlike the naming of tropical cyclones, which is managed globally by the World Meteorological Organization, European windstorm naming is coordinated through several regional groups under the EUMETNET framework.

The practice of naming these storms began formally in the 1950s by the Free University of Berlin. It was not until 2015 that national weather services starting with the Met Office and Met Éireann initiated official public naming schemes to improve disaster communication.

Selection Criteria, Naming Systems and Eligibility

A storms name only makes it on this list if:

  • It was officially named by a national weather service of one of the EUMETNET observer groups.

What is not excepted:

  • A storm name issued by Free University Berlin, as they name all high and low pressure over the continent, most of whom are not eligible for storm naming criteria

Naming groups

Since 2015, the naming of high-impact windstorms has been coordinated by several regional groups within the EUMETNET framework. Each group maintains its own alphabetical list of names for each season.

Historical Western group names

The following names were used from the lists submitted by the Western group for European windstorm naming.

(United Kingdom, Ireland and Netherlands)

Historical South-western group names

The following names were used from the lists submitted by the South-western group for European windstorm naming.

(France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg)

Historical Central Mediterranean group names

The following names were used from the lists submitted by the Central Mediterranean group for European windstorm naming.

(Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Malta)

Historical Eastern Mediterranean group names

The following names were used from the lists submitted by the Eastern Mediterranean group for European windstorm naming.

(Greece, Israel and Cyprus)

Asterisked (*) entities that were named that were not windstorms, as the SE Med group also names non-wind events like heat waves (e.g., Cleon).

Historical Northern group names

The following names were used from the lists submitted by the Northern group for European windstorm naming. Since 2026 the Northern group have been using a unified lists of names, starting with Anna.

(Norway, Denmark and Sweden)

See also

References