The 2018–2019 European windstorm season was the fourth instance of seasonal

European windstorm European windstorms are powerful extratropical cyclones which form as cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure. They can occur throughout the year, but are most frequent between October and March, with peak inten ...

naming in Europe. Most storms form between September and March. The first named storm, Ali, affected primarily the United Kingdom and Ireland on 19 September 2018.

Background and naming

In 2015, the British and Irish national meteorological agencies,

Met Office The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope ...

and

Met Éireann Met Éireann (; meaning " Met of Ireland") is the state meteorological service of Ireland, part of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. History The history of modern meteorology in Ireland dates back to 8 October 1860, w ...

respectively, announced a pilot project to name storm warnings as part of the ''Name our Storms'' project for wind storms and asked the public for suggestions. The meteorological offices produced a full list of names for 2015–2016 through to 2017–2018, common to both the UK and Ireland. A new list of names was released on 11 September 2018 for the 2018–2019 season. Names in the UK were based on the

National Severe Weather Warning Service The National Severe Weather Warning Service (shortened to NSWWS) is a service provided by the Met Office in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this service is to warn the public and emergency responders of severe or hazardous weather which has t ...

, when a storm is assessed to have the potential for an Amber 'be prepared' or Red 'take action (danger to life)' warning. There are two main naming lists, created by the national meteorological agencies of the UK and Ireland, and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

respectively. Additionally, former

Atlantic hurricane An Atlantic hurricane, also known as tropical storm or simply hurricane, is a tropical cyclone that forms in the Atlantic Ocean, primarily between the months of June and November. A hurricane differs from a tropical cyclone, cyclone or typhoon on ...

s will retain their names as assigned by the

National Hurricane Center The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/ National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 3 ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

United Kingdom and Ireland

France, Spain and Portugal

This is the second season in which the meteorological agencies of France, Spain and Portugal will be naming storms which affect their areas. This naming scheme is partially overlapping with that used by the UK and Ireland, as storms named by the other group of agencies will be used reciprocally.

Other naming systems

Two former

s transitioned into

s during the season, and retained their names as assigned by the

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

: Additionally to these naming systems, the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public university, public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in poli ...

also names high and low pressure areas through its "Adopt a vortex" programme. The Nordic nations of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and Sweden also name storms with more limited reciprocation. Other nations may also name storms either through their national meteorological institutions or popularly.

Season summary

ImageSize = width:1100 height:200 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:20 left:20 Legend = columns:1 left:30 top:58 columnwidth:200. AlignBars = early DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/09/2018 till:01/09/2019 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMinor = grid:black unit:month increment:1 start:01/09/2018 Colors = id:canvas value:gray(0.9) id:4 value:blue legend:United_Kingdom_&_Ireland_naming_list id:5 value:red legend:France,_Spain_&_Portugal_naming_list id:6 value:black legend:Ex-Hurricanes Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas BarData = barset:Hurricane bar:Month PlotData= barset:Hurricane width:10 align:left fontsize:S shift:(4,-4) anchor:till from:16/09/2018 till:21/09/2018 color:6 text:" Helene" from:17/09/2018 till:22/09/2018 color:4 text:" Ali" from:20/09/2018 till:25/09/2018 color:4 text:" Bronagh" from:10/10/2018 till:16/10/2018 color:4 text:" Callum" from:13/10/2018 till:15/10/2018 color:6 text:" Leslie" from:27/10/2018 till:03/11/2018 color:5 text:" Adrian" Barset:break from:05/11/2018 till:09/11/2018 color:5 text:" Beatriz" from:14/11/2018 till:18/11/2018 color:5 text:"

Carlos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

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Diana Diana most commonly refers to: * Diana (name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Diana (mythology), ancient Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals; later associated with the Moon * Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) ...

" from:04/12/2018 till:07/12/2018 color:5 text:" Etienne" from:13/12/2018 till:17/12/2018 color:5 text:"

Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

" from:15/12/2018 till:17/12/2018 color:4 text:" Deirdre" Barset:break from:28/01/2019 till:31/01/2019 color:5 text:"

Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...

" from:29/01/2019 till:05/02/2019 color:5 text:"

Helena Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * ...

" from:07/02/2019 till:14/02/2019 color:4 text:" Erik" from:08/02/2019 till:12/02/2019 color:5 text:" Isaias" from:20/02/2019 till:21/02/2019 color:5 text:" Julia" from:23/02/2019 till:03/03/2019 color:5 text:" Kyllian" Barset:break from:02/03/2019 till:07/03/2019 color:4 text:" Freya" from:04/03/2019 till:11/03/2019 color:5 text:"

Laura Laura may refer to: People * Laura (given name) * Laura, the British code name for the World War I Belgian spy Marthe Cnockaert Places Australia * Laura, Queensland, a town on the Cape York Peninsula * Laura, South Australia * Laura Bay, a bay on ...

" from:11/03/2019 till:14/03/2019 color:4 text:"

Gareth Sir Gareth (; Old French: ''Guerehet'', ''Guerrehet'') is a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurian legend. He is the youngest son of King Lot and Queen Morgause, King Arthur's half-sister, thus making him Arthur's nephew, as well as brother ...

" from:25/04/2019 till:28/04/2019 color:4 text:"

Hannah Hannah or Hanna may refer to: People, biblical figures, and fictional characters * Hannah (name), a female given name of Hebrew origin * Hanna (Arabic name), a family and a male given name of Christian Arab origin * Hanna (Irish surname), a famil ...

" from:05/06/2019 till:12/06/2019 color:5 text:" Miguel" barset:Hurricane width:10 align:left fontsize:S shift:(4,-4) anchor:till bar:Month width:7 align:center fontsize:S shift:(0,-20) anchor:middle color:canvas from:01/09/2018 till:30/09/2018 text:September from:01/10/2018 till:31/10/2018 text:October from:01/11/2018 till:30/11/2018 text:November from:01/12/2018 till:31/12/2018 text:December from:01/01/2019 till:31/01/2019 text:January from:01/02/2019 till:28/02/2019 text:February from:01/03/2019 till:31/03/2019 text:March from:01/04/2019 till:30/04/2019 text:April from:01/05/2019 till:31/05/2019 text:May from:01/06/2019 till:30/06/2019 text:June from:01/07/2019 till:31/07/2019 text:July from:01/08/2019 till:31/08/2019 text:August

The season began on 16 September 2018 with the naming of Storm Helene, a former Atlantic hurricane. However, as it weakened considerably while approaching the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles (O ...

, all warnings for Helene were discontinued on 18 September. Later that day, the second storm of the season, Storm Ali, was named by the Met Office and Met Éireann with the issuance of amber wind