Storm naming and forecast communication: A case study of Storm Doris

Abstract

AbstractOn February 23, 2017, a significant low‐pressure system named Storm Doris crossed the Republic of Ireland and the UK causing widespread disruption. As an early example of a storm named through the Met Office and Met Eireann “Name Our Storms” project, this provided an excellent opportunity to study how information about extreme weather in the UK spread through the media. In traditional media, the forecast of Storm Doris was widely reported upon on February 21–22. On the February 23, newspaper coverage of the event rapidly switched to reporting the impact of the storm. Around three times the number of words and twice the number of articles were published on the impacts of Storm Doris in comparison with its forecast. Storm Doris rapidly became a broader cultural topic with an imprint on political news because of two by‐elections that occurred by coincidence on February 23. In the social media, the rapid growth in the number of tweets about Storm Doris closely mirrored the growth of newspaper articles about the impacts of the storm. The network structure of the tweets associated with Storm Doris revealed the importance of both the Met Office official Twitter account and newspaper and rail company accounts in disseminating information about the storm. Storm names, in addition to their benefit for forecast communication, also provide researchers with a useful and easily collected target to study the development and evolution of public understanding of extreme weather events.