Wind or rain – what exactly makes a storm?

The Met Office must have been tempting fate when it began naming storms. Since then the country has had to endure a run of stormy weather, and so far nine storms have been powerful enough to earn a name.

But has the new system been worth all the hype, or has it just been a storm in a teacup? The Met Office would argue that the move has garnered lots of media attention and alerted everyone to the dangers of the storms, and so is well worth the effort.