Which country has better names for winter storms – Ireland or the US?

In the US, the National Hurricane Center has been regularly naming major storms since right after WWII, and the Weather Channel took it upon themselves to start naming winter storms in 2012.

In Ireland, however, this marks the first winter that Met Éireann, Ireland’s weather service, has named storms.

Last year, Met Éireann and the Met Office in the UK came together to bring home greater public awareness "of warnings for medium and high-impact windstorms affecting Ireland and the UK."

They explained that the naming scheme “is focused on large-scale, cyclonic windstorms with potential for significant land-based wind impacts – often systems which develop rapidly and/or move quickly towards us.”

Many of the storm names were sourced from suggestions from the public. Here’s the full list:

· Abigail

· Barney

· Clodagh

· Desmond

· Eva

· Frank

· Gertrude

· Henry

· Imogen (active)

· Jake (unused)

· Katie (unused)

· Lawrence (unused)

· Mary (unused)

· Nigel (unused)

· Orla (unused)

· Phil (unused)

· Rhonda (unused)

· Steve (unused)

· Tegan (unused)

· Vernon (unused)

· Wendy (unused)

Adorable! With names like Imogen, Gertrude, Vernon and Rhonda, Ireland’s storms sound like a bunch of old dears gathered for a game of bridge, or the incoming kindergarten class at an exceptionally fancy private school.

How about the US? For this winter, the Weather Channel selected students in the Latin class at Bozeman High School in Bozeman, Montana to name the coming storms. Here are their picks:

· Ajax

· Bella

· Cara

· Delphi

· Echo

· Ferus

· Goliath

· Hera

· Ilias

· Jonas

· Kayla

· Lexi

· Mars

· Nacio (active)

· Olympia (unused)

· Petros (unused)

· Quo (unused)

· Regis (unused)

· Selene (unused)

· Troy (unused)

· Ursula (unused)

· Vexo (unused)

· Waylan (unused)

· Xenos (unused)

· Yolo (unused)

· Zandor (unused)

All the mythological references are a nice touch, making the storms sound formidable. But Echo? Yolo? You can definitely tell some high schoolers had a say in this.

Who do you think did a better job? Would you rather be caught in Storm Ajax or Storm Abigail? Storm Mars or Storm Mary? Bella or Barney? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.