Alice, Benjamin, Claudia and more: Spain's state weather agency reveals full list of names for next round of high-impact storms

Spain's state meteorological agency (Aemet) has published the list of names for the high-impact storms of the 2025-2026 season, which began this week on Monday, 1 September.

This list is compiled by the south-west naming group, which is made up of the national meteorological services of Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, with Andorra joining this year. "The list alternates a total of 21 male and female names, agreed before the start of the season."

The first storm of the season will be named Alice and it will be followed by: Benjamin, Claudia, Davide, Emilia, Francis, Goretti, Harry, Ingrid, Joseph, Kristin, Leonardo, Marta, Nils, Oriana, Pedro, Regina, Samuel, Therese, Vitor and Wilma.

Only storms that are likely to have a major impact, with amber or red warnings over large areas due to very strong winds, rain or snowfall, are named. In addition, storms that issue yellow warnings for strong winds also receive a name.

Names are always selected in alphabetical order, alternating between male and female names, known as the 'zip method': male, female, male, female and so on. Numerous storms can occur throughout the year, but this naming system is reserved for those considered to have a major impact, i.e. those which cause strong gusts of wind, affecting several areas and forcing the activation of red and amber warnings. They must also be located in one of the four countries that 'baptise' them: Spain, France, Portugal or Belgium.

The names for hurricanes, tropical storms or cyclones began with the saints. In the late 19th century, Australian meteorologist Clement L. Wragge was the first to use women's names for weather phenomena - a custom adopted by the US in 1953. After the creation of the national hurricane center (NHC), the alternation between male and female names began.

In Europe, Freie Universität Berlin has been naming anticyclones and storms since 1954. However, it does not make distinctions and gives a name to any prominent front. For this reason, since 1 December 2018, Spain's state meteorological agency (Aemet) and its counterparts - MétéoFrance, the Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (Ipma) and the royal meteorological institute of Belgium (RMI) - have been naming deep storms, which are cyclones that pass through mid-latitudes, between 30 and 60 degrees and cause strong or very strong winds.

The names have been arranged in an anti-clockwise pattern to emulate the movement of storms in the northern hemisphere. This system of proper names was chosen because surveys in the UK and Ireland showed that people were more attentive to severe weather warnings and safety recommendations if they were identified by name.