via Claims Journal
Over the weekend, as I kept current on the weather bearing down on the Plains and Southern states, I couldn’t help but notice the reference of the storm, Winter Storm Rocky. When did we start naming winter storms? After a bit of digging I found this article by Claims Journal that helped shed some light on this new naming system of winter storms.
Although it is a bit unorthodox, kudos to The Weather Channel for using their massive network, social media and marketing sense to take ownership of naming these massive winter storms we have been experiencing this year. Are these names official or supported? The National Weather Service does not think so and urges their meteorologists not to reference these unapproved names, but after the exposure and use by The Weather Channel of their dubbed winter storm names, the names have caught on in the social media world and is sure to trickle their way into other networks.
Since the winter storm names are catching onto the social media weather hype, especially via Twitter, perhaps The Weather Channel can work on modifying the choice of names they decide to call these storms…because I do see these names sticking. I do not think, however, the science fiction, cartoon, popular movie and overall light-hearted route is a professional genre to choose from for naming the winter storms that are devastating the lives of many. We will see.
