Met Office criticised for not naming storm which battered Britain as fresh weather warnings are issued

The Met Office has been criticised after it failed to name the storm which battered Britain this morning, bringing with it winds of up to 95mph and heavy blizzards.

The storm wasn’t given a name as weather forecasts showed that the predicted conditions were not severe enough to warrant one.

Many people were caught off guard by the ferociousness of the wind and snow, leading to some asking why it hadn’t been identified like Storm Fionn the day before, despite warnings being issued. 

The weather caused travel chaos as roads and rail routes were disrupted by fallen trees and thousands of homes were left without power according to the UK Power Network.

Sara Thornton, who presents the weather on the BBC and runs her own digital weather service, was among those who said Thursday's storm should have been named after the previous storm was called Fionn by Ireland's national forecasters.

Ms Thornton wrote on Twitter: "Frankly, it’s a mess. The impacts from this storm warranted a name; my gut feeling is that if MetEireann hadn’t got in and named a separate system Storm Fionn on Tuesday, this storm would have been named that. They should have moved on to Storm Georgina."

She added that not naming the storm sent a message to people that it was not going to be serious, despite the practice of naming weather storms being relatively new.

The national meteorological service in France called the pressure system Storm David, while Dutch forecasters had issued "code red" warnings for high winds, with at least two deaths reported in the Netherlands.

Met Office spokeswoman Nicky Maxey said that naming bad weather fronts does increase awareness but that in this instance the storm hadn’t reached naming criteria in the UK.

She added: “Storm Fionn was completely separate to what was named as Storm David in France. The low pressure system which passed over the UK on Wednesday night did not meet the necessary criteria to name it.

“It did however meet the criteria in France and it would not have made sense for us to give the same low pressure system two different names.”

Weather warnings remain in place on Friday for ice and snow. Disruption is expected on the roads along with snow showers across western England and Wales.

Three Yellow warnings are in place for Friday, with the worst affected areas being Scotland and western England.

A yellow warning for ice is also in place until Saturday for northern and western parts of Scotland.