First storm of the season to get Dutch name Antoni

The first storm of the season will get the Dutch name, Antoni, after Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the KNMI announced. The Dutch meteorological institute has been naming storms with its English and Irish counterparts since 2019 to draw people’s attention to dangerous weather.

Storms for which the KNMI issues a code orange or red strong winds warning, and in some cases a code yellow, get a name. For the 2022-2023 season, the Dutch contributions are all on the theme of Dutch scientists of the past. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was the first to develop microscopes and discover pathogens like bacteria.

The female Dutch contributions are Hendrika after TU Delft’s first female lecturer, phsysistts Hendrika van Leeuwen (1887-1974), Johanna for botanist and fungal expert Johanna Westerdijk (1883-1961), and Loes for the Netherlands’ first female forester Loes van Straaten (1922-1991).

The other two male names contributed by the Netherlands are Tobias and Wouter. Lawyer Tobias Asser (1838-1913) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911 for his role in establishing the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the first Hague peace conference in 1899. And Wouter Bleek (1904-1976) was a former chief director of the KNMI and a central figure in Dutch meteorology.