Storm Abigail Abigail was the first storm to be officially named (jointly) by the Met Office and Met Éireann on 10 November 2015. The
Free University of Berlin named the cyclone Frank. A Met Office yellow warning for wind was issues to all of Scotland on 11 November; with amber warnings for the Western Isles, north west Highlands, parts of Argyll and Orkney. Initial forecasts on 12 November from a Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office warned of wind gusts widely reaching in exposed locations. Abigail brought high winds, rain, lightning, and wintry showers across the north and northwest of Scotland. On 12 November, local ferries were affected by bad weather with many services cancelled. It was announced that every school in the Western Isles and
Shetland were to be closed to pupils on 13 November. The storm left more than 20,000 homes without power, according to energy company
SSE.
Storm Barney A yellow warning for wind was issued by the Met Office for
Wales, along with southern, central and eastern England, with gusts of expected on 17 November. It affected Ireland, Wales, southern and eastern England and the
Midlands, where thousands of homes lost power and rail services were disrupted. The storm was named Heini by the Free University of Berlin adopt-a-vortex scheme.
Storm Clodagh The Met Office issued a statement on 26 November saying that despite a prediction of windy weather in the coming days, the weather system was unlikely to become a named storm. On 28 November, Met Éireann upgraded its warnings and named the storm Clodagh. The
Danish Meteorological Institute christened the low as Gorm on the same evening. The Free University of Berlin named the low Nils II. In the UK and Ireland, Clodagh's impact was most severe in Ireland and North West England. In the Republic of Ireland 6,000 people were left without power. In Northwest England 10,000 customers were without power. It also caused disruption to transport in the
North of England and Scotland.
Storm Desmond Desmond was the fourth storm to be officially named, with heavy rain and severe gales forecast for 5–6 December across Ireland and the north of the UK. On 4 December, the Met Office issued yellow warnings for wind and rain across most of the north of the UK and an amber warning for rain in parts of central and southern Scotland,
Tayside and
Fife Met Éireann issued a status red rainfall warning for areas of
Connacht, as well as counties
Donegal,
Clare and
Kerry, with
Clare County Council issuing a flood warning. On 5 December, the Met Office issued a red severe weather warning for rain in
Cumbria. The
Environment Agency had severe flood warnings in place for parts of the
River Tyne in
Northumberland and across Cumbria. The expected heavy rainfall was considered to be an extreme weather event by the
Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who named it Synne. The US
National Weather Service Ocean Prediction Center tweeted that the heavy rain was due to Desmond pulling a plume of moist air across the Atlantic Ocean to Western Europe, a weather phenomenon known as an
atmospheric river. Approximately 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes in
Hawick,
Scottish Borders on 5 December, because the
River Teviot flooded.
Appleby and
Keswick in the English county of
Cumbria suffered blocked roads and some homes were evacuated; Cumbria Police declared the situation a "major incident". Homes left without electricity occurred in North Yorkshire (over 600) and in Wales (about 700); a further 2,000 people were without power in the Republic of Ireland. Landslides and flooding closed some main roads in Scotland and counties
Down and
Tyrone suffered road closures from fallen trees.
Storm Eva Eva was the fifth storm to be officially named by Met Éireann on 22 December 2015, with an orange wind warning being issued for counties Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. Gales were also expected in the northwest of the UK, with storm force winds over parts of the Outer Hebrides. There were fears that the storm could cause further disruption to
Cumbria in England, where areas were already dealing with the aftermath of flooding from Storm Desmond and in some cases had been flooded twice already. The army and Environment Agency staff were called in to be on stand-by to bolster flood defences. Rain associated with the passage of Eva caused further disruption when rivers burst their banks in the Cumbrian towns of
Appleby,
Keswick and
Kendal on 22 December, with Appleby receiving three to four feet of flood water. The village of
Glenridding was badly flooded for the third time in the month. 6000 houses in Ireland were left without power.
Liz Truss convened a
COBRA meeting to decide on emergency measures, which included the deployment of soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Lancaster's Regiment to the affected areas. On 24 December, flood defence gates were closed in Carlisle, Keswick and Cockermouth to limit the damage of rainfall and 20 water pumps and two kilometres of temporary flood barriers were transported to northern England. Ferries operating between Dublin and Holyhead were cancelled due to bad weather on the Irish Sea. The media widely reported Storm Eva as being responsible for the flooding which occurred in Lancashire and Yorkshire on 25–27 December 2015. However, communications from the Met Office indicated that Eva's only direct impact on the UK was strong winds and a band of rain during 23–24 December 2015. By 26 December Storm Eva was located over the far north of Norway. The persistent heavy rain from 25 to 27 December was caused by a subsequent slow moving depression and frontal zone. Despite red warnings for rain being issued by the Met Office on 26 December 2015, no name was given to this depression since there were no warnings issued for wind.
Storm Frank Frank was the sixth storm to be officially named by the Met Office on 28 December 2015, and brought severe gales to western parts of the UK as well as persistent, heavy rainfall. It caused some disruption over Northern Ireland, west and southwest Scotland, northwest England and Wales on 30 December. Amber 'be prepared' rainfall warnings, meaning "danger to life," had been issued because of severe flooding reported in England and Scotland. In Scotland, Frank caused floods in the towns of
Dumfries,
Peebles and
Ballater flooded by the rivers
Nith,
Tweed and
Dee. The storm claimed three casualties across
Cornwall,
Moray and the
Highlands. The Free University of Berlin named the storm Eckard.
Storm Gertrude On 28 January, the Met Office released news of the seventh named storm, Gertrude. In the release, they forecast a deepening area of low pressure to pass close to the north of Scotland on the night of 29 January, accompanied by a powerful jet stream from the Atlantic. It was anticipated that Scotland and Northern England would experience gales or severe gales ( widely; possible ) with the Northern Isles "likely" to reach storm force winds (widely , occasionally ). They warned of impacts to transport, power supplies and structural damage. The extent of amber severe weather warnings spread across the Northern Isles, western and southern Scotland and the "far north" of England and Northern Ireland. The winds for the early morning of 29 January were forecast to widely reach and perhaps in places. The Met Office noted other hazards such as large waves on western coasts and surface water from heavy rain during the morning. Winds were expected to strengthen and create the risk of blizzard conditions, especially over high ground in the north of Scotland. The Chief Operational Meteorologist said: "There remains some uncertainty over the exact track and intensity of the storm", however there was "higher confidence now" on the forecast of very strong winds and storm force winds in the Northern Isles. Press releases from
Transport NI and Scotland's Transport Minister,
Derek Mackay, reaffirmed the risk of strong winds and advised people to take care during the course of the storm. Gertrude caused the closures or restrictions on some bridges (
Erskine Bridge,
Tay Road Bridge,
Forth Road Bridge and
Severn Bridge) during the storm. On 29 January, 10% of
Abellio ScotRail services were cancelled. There were also power cuts across Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Storm Henry On 30 January, the Met Office released news about the eighth named storm of the season, Henry. It was forecast to bring heavy rain and very strong gusts of wind across Scotland, northern England and northern Wales on 1–2 February, particularly into the night of 1 February. It was anticipated to bring gales across north Wales and north England, and severe gales across Scotland, most notably in the western isles, which was expected to bring gusts of up to , resulting in amber wind warnings being issued. Localised flooding, transport disruption and issues with power supplies were expected, along with storm large waves being an additional concern.
Storm Imogen On 6 February
Met Éireann issued an amber warning for strong winds and named Storm Imogen. At this stage the
Met Office had issued a yellow warning for strong winds in south-west England and South Wales. On 7 February, the
Met Office yellow warning area was enlarged and an amber warning added for winds across south-western England of and locally on 8 February. They warned of the risk to trees, structures, interruption of power supplies and transport, especially the M4 and M5 motorways. On 8 February Storm Imogen brought trees down, produced large coastal waves, caused power cuts and toppled high-sided vehicles across southern England and Wales.
Storm Jake Jake was named by
Met Éireann on 1 March based on an amber warning of strong winds for counties Galway, Mayo, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick. Strong winds were experienced in much of the Republic of Ireland and also Wales and south-west England on 2 March. There were power cuts and trees blown down in parts of Wales. Disruption was also experienced in parts of south-west England.
Storm Katie Katie, the eleventh storm of the season, was named by the
Met Office on Good Friday, 25 March. During the first half of Easter Monday, 28 March strong winds were experienced widely across southern England with coastal gusts of and inland gusts of in many places. The peak gust of was recorded at the exposed site of
The Needles Old Battery. Impacts were widespread across southern England including trees felled, wall, fence and roof damage, scaffolding collapses, bridge closures, flights, ferries and train cancellations and power outages. == Season effects ==