I’m a weather geek. I love writing about the weather in non-technical terms. I love reading about weather-related stories. I love coming up with news or feature stories that relate how the weather affects our every-day lives including activities, economy and so on.
The funny/ironic thing is, I technically have a Storm Spotter certificate but I don’t know one thing about the different kinds of clouds or storm fronts. I just like weather.
The method of naming hurricanes and tropical storms has always been a source of amusement for me so imagine the simple joy I got when I read this article today. In case you don’t have time to read the whole thing, the Weather Channel is planning to name blizzards in a similar manner to how hurricanes are named.
According to the news article,
“Tropical storms and hurricanes informally received names for the first time in the late 1800s from Australian forecaster Clement Wragge, according to former National Hurricane Center director Bob Sheets. Wragge “named storms after women — and also after politicians with whom he disagreed,” Sheets writes in his book Hurricane Watch.
During World War II, tropical storms and hurricanes were informally given women’s names by military meteorologists (after their girlfriends or wives) who were monitoring and forecasting tropical cyclones over the Pacific, reports meteorologist Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center.
The formal hurricane naming system began in the mid-1950s. Men’s names were added to the lists in 1979.”
The criteria (admittedly a little random) is also listed in the article. It says that this is coming from the Weather Channel and there is no mention that I see if the National Weather Service will also participate. Oh, the names will be from a Greek/Roman theme. That should be fun!
What do you think of the plan to have named blizzard? Will that make them easier to refer to or is this just some way to sensationalize the snow?