First came Ashley, then Bert, swiftly followed by Conall and then Darragh.

Not the stars of a new boyband, or the latest cast for a reality TV show, but instead the list of named storms to have swept through the UK in less than eight weeks.

Since 2015 the Met Office has opted to christen each severe weather front if it has the potential to cause disruption or damage.

This winter, that means we’re now already up to letter E in the list after Darragh swept through over the weekend causing damage and transport delays across Kent and ruining Christmas events for businesses and families. Elsewhere of course, the damage was much worse.

Meteorologists say naming storms helps streamline communication. It’s easier for us to follow their progress and heed the warnings from officials if we’re familiar with their moniker.

But after four named storms in two months I wonder if there comes a point in winter where we risk switching off to the current messaging?

With climate change tightening its grip must we now draw a new line at what is typical weather for the time of year here and less of a notable event?

(A worrying thought in itself, particularly for those living in areas continually at risk of flooding.)

Meteorologists compared Storm Ciarán in 2023 to the "Great Storm" of 1987.

But while we can all recall some aspect of the 1987 cyclone that bared down on the south east - not least for that infamous Michael Fish moment - can you set Storm Ciarán apart from any other winter weather event last year?

That perhaps does not matter, the Met Office may argue, providing warnings about Ciaran were heeded at the time.

But at what point do people stop taking notice of warnings if they’re hearing them almost weekly?

We’re all suffering from information overload as it is. Is it a genuine risk we start zoning-out to weather and travel alerts if they’re perceived to just be on repeat?

Darragh’s fortunate weekend arrival made ‘do not travel’ advice easier to issue (and maybe follow) but midweek and people have work and school to get to. People can’t hit pause on their day-to-day business quite so willingly - and won’t if they think they’ve heard it all before.

That’s not to say we must diminish the experience of those caught up in these awful events.

If anything, these seemingly more frequent storms shine a light on our infrastructure’s inability to cope with extreme weather.

There’s so much work to be done on the ground if our winters are going to become one long round of gale force winds and rainfall of biblical proportions.

But in order to keep people safe do we need to think about how the most serious information is conveyed too?