Atiyah will be the first storm to blow in across the UK and Ireland this winter, the new list of names for this year's strongest weather systems shows.

Also on the list of storm names for 2019/2020 announced by the Met Office and Met Eireann are Brendan, Clara and Dennis, while a particularly stormy winter could see storms Samir, Tara, Vince and Willow batter the UK and Ireland.

It is the fifth year that the Met Office and Met Eireann have run the Name our Storms scheme, which aims to raise awareness of severe weather before it hits.

The season's names have been compiled from a list of submissions by the public, choosing some of the most popular names and also selecting those which reflect the nations, culture and diversity of the UK and Ireland.

This year the first storm gets a female name Atiyah, followed by an alternating pattern of female and male names which was established by the US National Hurricane Centre in the 1970s.

The alphabetical list of names skips Q, U, X, Y and Z to comply with international storm-naming conventions.

Derrick Ryall, associate director of public weather service at the Met Office said: “We were delighted with the public response to our call for names earlier this year and are really pleased storm naming has been embraced by press, media and public to better communicate the potential impacts of severe weather so people are better prepared, when it matters.

“Now coming into the fifth year of the Name our Storms campaign, we look forward to continuing our successful relationship with Met Éireann, our partner in Ireland and are delighted to welcome our new partners from KNMI.”

The poll for Name our Storm opened in July and suggestions were sent in via social media throughout the week.

Evelyn Cusack, head of forecasting at Met Éireann, said: “The naming of storms by National Met Services as well as colour coding weather warnings provides a clear, authoritative and consistent message to the public and prompts people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.

“We are overwhelmed with the huge response to our public call for storm names - please don’t be too disappointed if your name hasn’t been used as you will get another chance next year.”

The full list of storm names for 2019/2020 is: Atiyah, Brendan, Clara, Dennis, Ellen, Francis, Gerda, Hugh, Iris, Jan, Kitty, Liam, Maura, Noah, Olivia, Piet, Roisin, Samir, Tara, Vince and Willow.