The Weather Channel has, for a second year, devised names for winter storms.
The Weather Channel explains it wanted “to find the best possible ways to communicate severe weather information on all distribution platforms, including social media. Hashtags are an intrinsic part of social media, and a storm name proved to be the best way to efficiently and systematically convey storm information. Storm-name hashtags have been used with tropical storms and hurricanes for years, and Winter Storm Nemo’s billion-plus impressions on Twitter last winter demonstrated that the same system is ideal for winter storms as well.”
Not everyone is nuts over the idea of names and the practice stirred some controversy in the weather world last year when an AccuWeather executive issued a statement criticizing the idea.
"In unilaterally deciding to name winter storms, the Weather Channel has confused media spin with science and public safety,” he said. “We have explored this issue for 20 years and have found that this is not good science and will mislead the public. Winter storms are very different from hurricanes.”
The storm for 2013-14, derived from lists created by Bozeman (Mont.) High School students, and named after mythological figures, are:
Atlas
Boreas
Cleon
Dion
Electra
Falco
Gemini
Hercules
Ion
Janus
Kronos
Leon
Maximus
Nika
Orion
Pax
Quintus
Rex
Seneca
Titan
Ulysses
Vulcan
Wiley
Xenia
Yona
Zephyr
About the Author
