They are destructive forces that cause damage to large swathes of the country. Politicians, however, will not feature on a new list of names for storms that hit the British Isles.
The Met Office, and its Irish equivalent Met Éireann, asked the public to make suggestions for a storm-naming scheme that they hope will raise awareness of incoming severe weather.
The names came flooding in, but suggestions referring to leading politicians were carefully pruned.
The ban aims to avoid the politically sensitive scenario of a Storm Jeremy or a Storm Theresa laying waste to communities.
Nigel, however, made the list by sheer force of popularity, which the Ukip leader Nigel Farage may see as an insult or the ultimate compliment.
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“Yes, that was a very popular suggestion and I think we decided that would be OK to go through,” Emma Sharples, of the Met Office, said.
She confirmed that the names of other leading politicians were voted for in sufficient numbers to make the list, but were omitted.
When asked if a Storm Boris had been the cards, the Met Office spokeswoman left a silence hanging in the air as if she was hoping a strong easterly gust might blow it away.
Other popular suggestions that were not deemed fit for the list were the names of flowers and trees and any names that had previously been associated with destructive storms such as Andrew, Katrina and Jude.
Some were simply designed to raise a smile if a weather forecasting were to ever utter their name.
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“Somebody suggested Ena Teacup — so that we would have to call it Storm Ena Teacup — which is clearly clever but obviously we can’t use that,” Ms Sharples said.
The final list was drawn up from the most popular suggestions sent in via Twitter, Facebook and email. The names include both UK and Irish suggestions. From England sprang the solidly dependable Frank, Phil, Gertrude and Mary. The Welsh have Tegan and Rhonda. The Irish have Desmond, Clodagh and Orla, but traditional Celtic Scottish names are absent.
To maintain consistency with the US National Hurricane Centre’s convention, no names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z will be used because there are too few: who wants to be battered by Storm Quentin every time? In the pilot project, storms will be given names if they are deemed to have a high chance of causing a “substantial impact” on the public in either Ireland or the UK, such as causing damage to property or making transport conditions treacherous.
If the storm attracts a Yellow warning or the more severe Amber or Red warnings from the Met Office then they will be allocated a name. When a storm is the remnants of a tropical storm or hurricane that has moved across the Atlantic it will retain its American name.
As things stand, the chances of a Storm Steve striking terror into the heart of the nation looks likely in 2015-16. Chances of Storm Jeremy blowing in in 2020 remain uncertain.