The recent weather shows how powerful the planet is. My heart goes out to anyone who has been affected by the storms. I drive a small car and it felt like I was using all of the lanes of the M4 at once when the winds were gusting.

I know other parts of the UK had it worse but we saw some road closures – like in Wroughton – where flooding was a problem.

The fire service warned people not to drive through flood water and I am always surprised that we need that advice. You’d think it would be obvious but so many people try it.

I blame the Bond films of the 1970s. We got so used to seeing Roger Moore in an amphibious Lotus Esprit S1 we all think we can drive in water.

There’s another reason we don’t respect the power of these storms, the names. In the last few years we have adopted the American system of giving names to the storms and I think it messes with the psychology of the situation.

If you call anything Dennis you make it less frightening. Even Dennis the Menace was only scary because of his middle and surname. We have all known a Dennis. Probably a quiet chap you see down the local. Even his drink of choice is a pint of mild.

If you hear that a big storm is coming this weekend you’d batten down the hatches. If you hear that Dennis is coming this weekend you make sure you have enough milk in.

Before Dennis we had Storm Ciara. Why give a storm a name that many didn’t know how to pronounce? What if you needed to shout in an emergency, “Get inside, it’s Storm See… Cha… Ki… oh, forget it!”

A study found that people are less afraid of storms named after woman rather than men. Not only does that show the everyday sexism at play it also puts people at risk. If the powers that be name a storm something like Daisy or Winifred more people will risk going out in it.

If they insist on naming storms they should be forced to name the bad ones things like Cruella or Maleficent. Even a basic rule like “If the storm’s name sounds like it could have been one of ITV’s Gladiators don’t go out,” could keep us safe.

The worst case scenario would be naming a storm Alexa. Not only would it cause flooding and travel problems it would also crash the internet.

I preferred the old days when we didn’t use names. So be careful out there. There could be gales.