A Lord of the Rings character, a pet cat and a “quick-as-lightning” goalkeeper will now be forever associated with bad weather in the UK.
The naming of storms – which is now in its seventh year in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands – aims to raise awareness of the potential impact of severe weather events and help people to stay safe and protect themselves and their property before the storm arrives.
More than 10,000 suggestions were submitted to the Met Office for the list of names for the strongest weather events to hit the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands over the coming year.
The first storm of the year, which runs from September 2021 to the end of August 2022, will be called Arwen, a name thought to be of Welsh origin and popularised by JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings books.
Kim, Logan, Ruby and Dudley are among the names put forward by the UK public and selected by the Met Office, along with Met Eireann and Dutch national weather forecasting service – the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).
A Met Office spokesman said Kim was nominated in recognition of a “whirlwind” relative and a self-confessed weather watcher, while Logan, a name of Scottish origin, was nominated by several parents and grandparents, including a mention of a grandson who “runs through the house like a tornado” and another who is “as quick as lightning” when playing as a goalkeeper.
Ruby made the final cut after being nominated by a pet owner whose cat “comes in and acts like a storm” and a parent whose daughter “leaves a trail of destruction” when she enters the house.
Dudley fought off competition from seven other names beginning with D to top a poll on Twitter after being submitted by a couple who will share the last name of Dudley when they get married in 2022.
Other names on the list – which does not use names beginning with Q, U, X, Y or Z – include Barra, Corrie, Eunice, Franklin, Gladys, Herman, Imani, Jack, Meabh, Nasim, Olwen, Pol, Sean, Tineke, Vergil and Willemien.
Storms will be named when they are deemed to cause medium or high impacts from strong winds, rain or snow.
During the 2020-21 storm season, the UK has been hit by five Met Office-named storms, with the latest – Storm Evert – sweeping across southern areas of England and Wales at the end of July, bringing gusty winds and some persistent rain, after the UK’s joint fifth warmest July on record.
In Europe, heavy rainfall in July led to severe flooding in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The floods caused at least 184 deaths in Germany and 38 in Belgium and damaged homes, roads, railway lines and businesses.
Will Lang, head of the National Severe Weather Warning Service at the Met Office, said the naming of storms led to greater public awareness. “We’re all aware of some of the severe weather that has been witnessed across Europe and globally in recent months and we work to use any tool at our disposal to ensure the public is informed of potential risks, and naming storms is just one way we do that.”
KNMI Director General Gerard van der Steenhoven said storms were not confined to national borders. "It makes a lot of sense to give common names to such extreme weather events," he said.
"We gladly continue our collaboration with the UK Met Office and Met Éireann on storm forecasting. It is a great privilege and advantage to work in close cooperation with our colleagues from Ireland and the UK in the communication about storms. All people exposed to such impending extreme weather events will benefit.”
The complete list of the names selected by the weather agencies of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands are: Arwen, Barra, Corrie, Dudley, Eunice, Franklin, Gladys, Herman, Imani, Jack, Kim, Logan, Méabh, Nasim, Olwen, Pól, Ruby, Sean, Tineke, Vergil and Willemien.
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Fixtures All matches start at 9.30am, at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free
Thursday UAE v Ireland; Saturday UAE v Ireland; Jan 21 UAE v Scotland; Jan 23 UAE v Scotland
UAE squad Rohan Mustafa (c), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
