Why We Should Start Naming Heatwaves | Weeknotes #445

Why We Should Start Naming Heatwaves

So, we survived the heatwave here in the UK and the temperatures that I wrote about last week. Storms rolled through Friday and Saturday, breaking the worst of the temperatures. Laying in bed the other night listening to the rain arrive and feeling the damp cool air roll in though the window, I decided we should name heatwaves the same way as we do storms.

America has a tradition of naming and personifying hurricanes, but here in the UK, the Met Office didn’t start naming storms until 2015. The decision was made due to the confluence of a number of factors. First, it was a reaction to the media and semi-official agencies’ decisions to give previous storms names on an ad-hoc basis, the best example being the “St. Jude” storm in 2013. Secondly it was found that this ad hoc storm naming was confusing the public, and gave the impression that some high-risk storms were more risky than others just due to being named by a tabloid headline.

Downstream of that, it was adopting due to ample evidence that naming and personifying an incoming weather front allows the risks and dangers associated with the event find firmer purchase in the public psyche. Naming storms helps people understand the risks involved much more easily than abstract yellow or amber warnings.

At the time, predictably, the British tabloids were scathing about the idea, complaining about Americanisation, making claims of scaremongering, and rumbling about the British nanny state. Yet, a decade on, the evidence shows that naming storms and the Met Office’s 2015 decision to begin naming storms has been a resounding success. A prominent 2019 study by the University of Reading and the Open University, which analysed the pulic/media communication of Storm Doris, proved that official naming creates a synchronised, rapid spike in public awareness. Crucially, the paper showed that this translated directly to measurable, real-world behavioural changes—such as a significant reduction in rush-hour motorway traffic as people actively chose to stay safe.

The “Lucifer” Fallacy

So, what about naming heatwaves? Firstly, this is not a new idea. A study from the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds looked into it and suggested that it was a bad idea, concluding that the idea of a long stretch of sunshine, blue skies, and hot weather didn’t fit well in the public imagination worthy of a named event, and couldn’t picture the risk in the same way as we associate it with storms.

This paper, titled “How concerning is Lucifer? Insights from an experimental study of public responses to heat event naming,” was published in early 2024. Which means it came out after the UK had experienced the major 2022 and 2023 hot spells, but before the unprecedented crisis we just lived through in June 2026.

And, well frankly, the study was a little unimaginative with its naming conventions; the finding that the public wouldn’t take ‘Heatwave Lucifer‘ seriously is not exactly surprising. In a cultural vacuum, slapping a heavily stylised name onto a few sunny days can make the warning feel like artificial media hype, leading some participants to worry about “sensationalism.”

But nevertheless, I do think naming heatwaves is a good idea moving forward. The last week here in the UK, with three consecutive days of unprecedented Met Office Red Extreme Heat Warnings, melted IT infrastructure, closed schools, and tragic drownings, has broken through into the public consciousness. Extreme heat, I don’t think, will be viewed as a rare summer treat but as a systemic national emergency.

How Many Names?

Assuming that we were to begin such a practice in the UK, I wondered over the weekend: if we had started naming heatwaves in the UK at the same time as we began naming storms in 2015, I asked Claude how many of each would we have given a name to?

Since then, the Met Office has issued 73 names for storms (including the current, incomplete 2025/26 season). Looking through the historical weather data, my AI collaborator and I pulled together a heuristic with a mixed threshold of both Met Office weather warnings for extreme heat (which only launched in June 2021 and start at the Amber level) and long periods of yellow heat-health alerts that went on for a long duration.

This gave us a total of four potential named heatwaves that met the criteria for a truly high-impact, disruptive national event. You can see the comparative distribution in the table below:

Naming 73 storms vs 4 heatwaves seems about right to me. In terms of rarity and occurrence right now. It keeps the naming system highly exclusive, ensuring that the public doesn’t suffer from warning fatigue, while guaranteeing we treat a genuine crisis with the gravity it deserves. And the timing is urgent—right now it looks like we have another heatwave on the way in July.

All In The Name

Storms are named after people alternating genders. Storm Alice, Storm Bob, etc. Which was adopted to harmonise with the US agency and its naming of hurricanes.

Naming heat waves this way however, I don’t think would cut it. Heatwave Chaz followed by Heatwaver Dave doesn’t hit the same as does with a storm, and Heatwave lucifer, used in the study is a little on the nose.

Instead I would like to suggest that the Met Office adopt the names of monsters from British folklore, perhaps we can expand the list to add in beasts from Norse and French Romances too. If were were to harmonise the convention across to our European neighbours.

I think stepping away from mundane human names and tapping into deep cultural myths, but crucially not biblical or well known names! We can invoke the correct amount of atmospheric dread. A warning that Heatwave Black Shuck (the ominous, red-eyed hound of doom) or Heatwave Nuckelavee (the malevolent northern demon of drought and withered crops) is rolling in gives the threat a name and a tangible shape.

It commands ancestral and cultural respect, cuts through tabloid cynicism, and tells the public exactly what they need to know: a predatory force is coming, and it’s time to take cover.

Beyond public safety, I also think it puts English/British culture, and our rich mythic history back in the limelight. This is something that is sorely needed right now with the rise of nationalism unmoored from any deep sense of place. Rather than weaponising identity in the abstract, this might anchor our identity back to the land itself, its history, and the ancient stories we once used to explain the terrifying power of the natural world.

On The Blog

Words for a Departed Wizard

I wrote a long, heartfelt, memorial post to/for my departed friend Gordon White. I’m glad to have written it, and put it online. It’s one of the most personal things i’ve ever posted on line, and as a piece of writing, I’m very proud of it.

I was immediately struck by his magnetic personality, his wit, his charm, and above all, his absolutely extraordinary memory. This last quality was both scarily impressive and frequently absolutely infuriating. The confidence that made him such a compelling thinker could harden into a genuinely formidable inability to back down.

The bitch would just never admit that he was wrong.

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The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Calls so many calls
• Finished Episode 303! Recording this week, and doing the zine layout!
• Finished the layout for 100 Notes on Story Dwelling
• Wrote that thing about G.

Really unproductive week in the heat.

Terminal Access

Stuart Millard continues to be one of my favourite Youtubers. in this instalment he’s doing VHS archaeology on the show WOW. Something I vaguely remember and thought I’d hallucinated.

Reading

I’m still reading Postal Intelligence: The Tassis Family and Communications Revolution in Early Modern Europe by Rachel Midura. So so interesting!

I also started listening to The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession by Robert Falconer. Absolutely fucking brilliant book. Can’t recommend it enough. Late career therapist pointing out the bleeding obvious, and saying it with their whole chest. Love it. Which I could talk to Gordon about it. 🙁

Ibeyi – Offerings (LP)

Wow. Ibeyi are a new discovery for me. This Offerings LP came out a few days ago and its fantastic. Apparently it’s their 4th album, and i’m looking forward to going back though their catalogue/ The first words to come to mind to review the album is ‘devotional art pop’. This album has a really long sonic life, and will sound as fresh in 10 years as it does right now. There is so much going on here, lyrics, orchestration, production.

Can’t recommend it enough. I have a feeling this album is going to show up in a lot of people’s 2026 best of lists.

Remember Kids: