Female Storms Should be Taken Seriously! 

Storm Doris was quite an aggressive one with some tragic consequences. Locally it wreaked havoc bringing trees down as well as fences and causing damage to properties and vehicles. A tree crashed onto the tracks at Tadworth blocking all lines and causing commuters long delays.

However, there has been some interesting research carried out about how people react to storms with female names. Researchers have analysed over six decades of death rates from U.S. hurricanes and found that storms/hurricanes that are given female names are not taken as seriously as those named after men. Researchers have argued that storms named after women are not feared as much and therefore the population does not prepare itself so much. There are people who disagree with the research and say that the pattern is more likely to be a 'statistical fluke'. 

I decided to carry out a miniature survey in the local area of Epsom Downs and found that 75% of people would consider a storm with a male name more threatening; especially as in their opinion the female names were not current ones. 

It becomes an interesting question to find anything else allocated female names and the response. It does start to get difficult - ships are referred to as 'she' but the names are often related to valour and bravery such as HMS Daring or HMS Invincible. Then some of us give our cars names but refer to them as 'she'. The colour of the car nevertheless is apparently the usual reference for a car name. 

So the question really goes back to - are females still seen as the weaker of the sexes and are not to be taken seriously? Therefore, in the storm last week, did the people of Surrey not take the advice of the weather forecasters and secure their properties, (of course there are situations where nothing can be done or foretold) or did people take no notice of the name - a storm is a storm! 

By Julia Woods, Sutton High School