How to pronounce Storm Eowyn as UK hit by 114mph gusts and 'danger to life' warnings
How to pronounce Storm Eowyn as UK hit by 114mph gusts and 'danger to life' warnings
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Brits are being battered by historic wind speeds - and Brits are struggling to pronounce Storm Eowyn's name as it brings 'danger to life' conditions to the UK. The storm has dominated conversation and headlines since it was named this week and warnings have been gradually been raised to even in red, the maximum in some areas. A wind speed of 114mph brought by the storm has been recorded in Ireland, the fastest since records began.
In Ireland the obvious temptation is to call it Eoin or Owen. That's what people are familiar with and that's how many are pronouncing it across the UK. But in actual fact the name comes from Old English and isn't Irish in origin. And the correct pronunciation of Eowyn is starkly different. The correct way to say it is "ay-oh-win".
The names of storms which impact the UK are jointly compiled by the Met Office, Met Éireann (the Irish National Meteorological Service) and KNMI (The Dutch national weather forecasting service). These weather forecasters form the Western European storm naming group - there are other groups involving different weather forecasters for Northern and South Western Europe.
Each September, a new list of storm names are compiled for the upcoming storm season, which runs from September to late August every year. Storm names run in alphabetical order, however the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are never used to "maintain consistency for official storm naming in the North Atlantic", says the Met Office.
This means that only 21 letters in the alphabet (running from A to W), are chosen. In September 2024, the 2024/25 storm season name list was released. Although Storm Eowyn is the first named storm of 2025, it is the fifth named storm of the 2024/25 season.
