Spain and its partners in southwestern Europe have decided that Isolated High Level Depressions with the potential for major impact have a proper name, a practice that has been widespread with intense storms for years.
The measure, coordinated by the State Meteorological Agency together with Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Andorra, seeks to fine-tune the risk perception among citizens and make messages more direct when the weather situation demands maximum attention.
What changes with the new criteria
Names will only be assigned to those DANAs for which they are foreseen. orange or red level warnings due to rain, storms or wind, that is, the episodes most likely to cause significant damage or interruptions.
With this filter, any DANA is prevented from being automatically associated with catastrophes and attention is focused on the truly dangerous cases, reducing confusion that meteorological terms often generate in public conversation.
Additionally, labeling severe episodes with a name will facilitate more consistent communication. towards the media, will improve coordination with emergency services and allow for more accurate subsequent assessments.
Who decides and what names will be used
The initiative is part of the European program for naming high-impact storms, Storm Naming, coordinated by EUMETNET. AEMET has participated in the Southwest Group since 2017, along with the meteorological services of Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Andorra.
The group employs a prefixed list of names, which alternates between male and female, agreed upon by all countries. The first assigned to a DANA or high-impact storm will be Alice, followed by others such as Benjamin, Claudia, Davide, Emilia, Francis, Harry, Leonardo, Pedro, Therese or Wilma.
The name is activated when any of the services in the group determine that an episode meets the agreed criteria, guaranteeing a common procedure and easily identifiable throughout the southwestern region of Europe.
What is a DANA and why not all of them are dangerous?
A DANA is a Depresión Aislada y Niveles Altos: a pocket of cold air at altitude that can interact with humidity and favorable winds to generate adverse phenomena.
By their nature, they are systems of complex evolution and difficult predictionIn some configurations, they can cause very heavy rain, heavy snowfall, or severe storms; in others, their impact is limited or localized.
Hence, only DANAs with the potential to significantly affect the population and essential services receive a name, a way of distinguish what is truly critical from the rest of the usual situations.
Benefits for citizens and administrations
Experience with high-impact storms shows that a name improves the pay attention to the warnings and the social response: episodes such as Gloria, Filomena or Ciarán became references that made it easier to identify the risk without ambiguity.
According to the Ministry for Ecological Transition, naming these episodes will help reinforce the coherence of the official message, improve the preparedness of administrations and clarify the information circulating in the media and networks.
Third Vice President Sara Aagesen emphasizes that this tool contributes to citizens having a more acute awareness of danger when adverse situations approach, promoting a more effective and coordinated preventive response.
With this extension of the system, the naming of storms and the most adverse DANAs is fully aligned at European level, with homogeneous criteria and a shared list that simplifies communication between neighboring countries and emergency services.
Naming the most potentially damaging DANAs will focus attention on truly serious episodes, improve risk communication and facilitate operational coordination when every minute counts.
