Maybe someone thought that Pedro would never arrive. Or, at least, that it wouldn’t come so soon. But the storm Pedrothe number 16 since the season started in October, it will bring very strong wind and maritime storm in the north of the Peninsula on Wednesday and Thursday. And snow above 700 meters, the State Meteorological Agency () warned this Tuesday.
Only high-impact storms and storms are given names, among other things, so that the population takes extreme precautions against this type of meteorological events. Since October 7, there has been baptized a 16: Alice, Benjamin, Claudia, Davide, Emilia, Francis, Goretti, Harry, Ingrid, Joseph, Kristin, Leonardo, Marta, Nils, Oriana and now, Pedro. Until now, this figure has never been reached so soon. And we are one more storm away from reaching the record for named storms, 17 in the 2023-2024 season. But it is true that on that occasion it took six months to reach that figure. And now it has only taken four months to reach 16. This has led to a concatenation of storms that, in addition to causing floods, .
Pedro It is not expected to bring as much rainfall as the previous ones. But the fact that it shares a name with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, puts the focus on the way in which these events are called.
The names of storms and storms with great impact have been decided since 2017 by the official meteorological services of Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg and Andorra. When the season begins, on September 1, they already have a list with around twenty male and female names, which are used as the storms reach southwestern Europe.
The State Meteorological Agency is part of that group of nominators. Its spokesperson, Rubén del Campo, explains that “every year one of the member countries of the group proposes the list of names for the following season.” For the 2025-2026 season, the Portuguese meteorological service was in charge. This year’s list, explains del Campo, includes, for example, the aforementioned Pedro and Wilma, who is in last place. “This list is then shared with the rest of the countries that make up the southwest group and we approve it,” adds the Aemet spokesperson.
But what criteria are used to choose names? “That they are generally relatively easy to write and pronounce in the rest of the languages of the countries that make up the group,” says del Campo. Pedro, remember, “is a very common name in both Spain and Portugal.” That’s why it was included, he argues.
Once the list has been decided, names are assigned in order to the storms that arrive. In the case of PedroFrance has been the country that has named it because it will be the one that experiences its effects the most and the first to reach it.
