SPAIN PREPARES FOR STORM HERVE

Daniel, Elsa, Fabien and now Gloria. The weather in the Iberian Peninsula has been recently conditioned by storms, an atmospheric phenomenon that usually causes strong gusts of wind and abundant rainfall.

Storm Gloria has left 13 dead and astronomical damage across Spain.

People throughout Spain are still suffering the side-effects of the devastating storm and the name of a new storm rings loud. Storm Herve.

When Storm Herve will hit Spain is still unclear. Just as it’s unclear if it will be as devastating as Gloria or not, what meteorologists warn is that it will be BIG.

AEMET, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency, not only provides updates and alerts to weather conditions across Spain but is also one of the meteorological entities in charge of naming the deep Atlantic storms that affect Spain, France or Portugal. And names are only given to those cyclones predicted to be of a certain magnitude.

Since 1 December 2017, AEMET, together with its French counterpart, MétéoFrance, and the IPMA, the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere, has given its name to all those deep storms that condition and endanger the mobility and integrity of citizens following the creation of the Southwest Group, which was forged to facilitate the cooperation of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and based on the West Group system formed by the United Kingdom and Ireland.

And the next storm due to lash through the Spanish territory has already been baptized as Herve. In fact all the expected storms to hit Spain during 2019/2020 have been named as informed in a tweet by AEMET

#AEMETinforma hoy comienza la temporada 2019/2020 de nombramiento de #Borrascas con gran impacto, aunque no hay ninguna a la vista para los próximos días.
En 2017-2018 se nombraron 9
En 2018-2019 fueron 13
¿Cuántas se nombrarán en la del 2019-2020?https://t.co/R02V9pOEx4 pic.twitter.com/IEJOsNqI0H

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) September 1, 2019

Storms of a certain magnitude are named by AEMET following alphabetical order, alternating male and female names, the same system used in relation to tropical storms.

In the past, only male names were used for anticyclones, centres of high pressure that guarantee meteorological stability and usually bring good weather; while storms, usually accompanied by rain and bad weather, were always named after women. To avoid this practice today, the system followed is an annual list of 21 names, both male and female, in alphabetical order.

What is clear is that Herve will be next, but will Spain be ready?