LONDON -- The next time a significant storm is headed for UK or Irish shores it will have a name - Abigail.
The UK Met Office and Ireland's Met Éireann announced a storm name for almost every letter of the alphabet; these will start being used the next time an autumn or winter storm that's expected to have substantial impact is approaching. Among the names selected: Barney, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Steve and Wilbert.
The two meteorological services used suggestions made by people through Facebook, Twitter and email to compile the list for autumn and winter 2015/2016.
"To ensure we are in line with the US National Hurricane Centre naming convention, we are not going to include names which begin with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z," the Met Office said in an update on its website. "This will maintain consistency for official storm naming in the North Atlantic."
Both meteorological services have said that giving a single authoritative name to a storm could help raise awareness around severe weather and help people to be more prepared.