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TWC going to name winter storms this winter


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I don't recall more than a few posts that even mentioned the name "Nemo" during the blizzard in our threads. Thankfully too. It just seems ludicrous to name winter storms on subjective impulse and not any defined criteria.

 

Not only that, long time winter weather followers are so used to using dates for storms and not names. The local news was calling it the Blizzard of '13 too...so I'm glad they didn't pick up on that junk. I'm sure an article or three in the paper probably mentioned it by the TWC name, but I didn't hear the name used at all in the local coverage by either mets or reported in Boston.

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I don't recall more than a few posts that even mentioned the name "Nemo" during the blizzard in our threads. Thankfully too. It just seems ludicrous to name winter storms on subjective impulse and not any defined criteria.

 

Not only that, long time winter weather followers are so used to using dates for storms and not names. The local news was calling it the Blizzard of '13 too...so I'm glad they didn't pick up on that junk. I'm sure an article or three in the paper probably mentioned it by the TWC name, but I didn't hear the name used at all in the local coverage by either mets or reported in Boston.

 

I noticed the NYT avoided calling it Nemo as well.

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I called this storm Nemo

So much seriousness and disagreement with everything these days

 

 

I don't really think there is anything horrifically wrong with naming the storms from a reporting standpoint....but there's a few issues I have with it. One, they are naming every storm that drops a few inches of snow...so you are going to have a ridiculous number of storms.....and two, there isn't any real defined criteria.

 

With this many storms named, people don't remember them very well after awhile. I suppose the biggest ones like this they will, but when talking about a solid nor' easter, 20 years from now people will start saying "which one was that again?" which the traditional non-naming takes care of. When we refer to storms by the date, it really makes it alot easier to recall it.

 

Tropical cyclones are rare enough for landfalling storms that they are easily remembered because their criteria is strict and fairly high end, which usually means the system is going to make a large impact if it hits somewhere. A 5" snow event is not.

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Notice the lyrics...

 

Oh how I wish

For soothing rain

All I wish is to dream again

My loving heart

Lost in the dark

For hope I'd give my everything

Oh how I wish

For soothing rain

Oh how I wish to dream again

Once and for all

And all for once

Nemo my name forever more

Also notice the video takes place in a winter storm...

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I don't recall more than a few posts that even mentioned the name "Nemo" during the blizzard in our threads. Thankfully too. It just seems ludicrous to name winter storms on subjective impulse and not any defined criteria.

 

Not only that, long time winter weather followers are so used to using dates for storms and not names. The local news was calling it the Blizzard of '13 too...so I'm glad they didn't pick up on that junk. I'm sure an article or three in the paper probably mentioned it by the TWC name, but I didn't hear the name used at all in the local coverage by either mets or reported in Boston.

 

The naming with *this* particular storm caught on with the unwashed masses...there were school districts down here using it to announce they weren't having evening activities Friday night...and reporters on the non-NBC network affiliates who were tweeting out with Nemo as a hashtag.  Newspapers were referring to it locally (not the Inquirer, to my knowledge, but the suburban dailies were).  Nemo also trended higher than blizzard for most of Friday night on twitter.

 

The ship will sail on names with "big" storms -- and I think naming winter storms is ok if it's coming from the HPC or Kocin and not some secretive blend of herbs, spices, and marketing from Atlanta.

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Apparently these people do not read any NWS products as there is no mention of the storm names in them!

 

 

I'd hazard a guess 99.5% of the public doesn't read the NWS discos. I'd also hazard a guess 99.5% of the public doesn't care if a winter storm has a name or not. The only reason Nemo got out more was because it was a high population storm. Sensing good drama, the media jumped on this storm, sniffed out Nemo from TWC, and used it.

I could care less about this whole naming thing, but I imagine AccuWx is having fits right now and that I find rather humorous.

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I'd hazard a guess 99.5% of the public doesn't read the NWS discos. I'd also hazard a guess 99.5% of the public doesn't care if a winter storm has a name or not. The only reason Nemo got out more was because it was a high population storm. Sensing good drama, the media jumped on this storm, sniffed out Nemo from TWC, and used it.

I could care less about this whole naming thing, but I imagine AccuWx is having fits right now and that I find rather humorous.

 

I tend to agree, although not just the AFD's but the wealth of WSW's that are issued by the WFO's. None of the products carry the storm names. Yeah, makes you wonder what AccuWx really thinks about all of this.

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I don't really think there is anything horrifically wrong with naming the storms from a reporting standpoint....but there's a few issues I have with it. One, they are naming every storm that drops a few inches of snow...so you are going to have a ridiculous number of storms.....and two, there isn't any real defined criteria.

 

With this many storms named, people don't remember them very well after awhile. I suppose the biggest ones like this they will, but when talking about a solid nor' easter, 20 years from now people will start saying "which one was that again?" which the traditional non-naming takes care of. When we refer to storms by the date, it really makes it alot easier to recall it.

 

Tropical cyclones are rare enough for landfalling storms that they are easily remembered because their criteria is strict and fairly high end, which usually means the system is going to make a large impact if it hits somewhere. A 5" snow event is not.

 

I'll probably never refer to it as nemo in the future.. I'm more of a "Blizzard of Feb 8-9, 2013" type of guy.  I was against the naming but I found it at least maringally useful on social media to find things.  The name was stupid... the idea is self serving.  But I don't think it's really hurting anyone.

 

I don't see how you can come to a perfect set of requirements for naming a winter storm.. they are too nebulous. I'd rather see them overnamed than undernamed.

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I don't really think there is anything horrifically wrong with naming the storms from a reporting standpoint....but there's a few issues I have with it. One, they are naming every storm that drops a few inches of snow...so you are going to have a ridiculous number of storms.....and two, there isn't any real defined criteria.

With this many storms named, people don't remember them very well after awhile. I suppose the biggest ones like this they will, but when talking about a solid nor' easter, 20 years from now people will start saying "which one was that again?" which the traditional non-naming takes care of. When we refer to storms by the date, it really makes it alot easier to recall it.

Tropical cyclones are rare enough for landfalling storms that they are easily remembered because their criteria is strict and fairly high end, which usually means the system is going to make a large impact if it hits somewhere. A 5" snow event is not.

To me a my tropical storm named curved out to sea is alot less disruptive then a 5 inch snow storm.

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^A good argument could be made, but I think in the end TWC would win.

 

Why can't someone put an end to this foolishness?

Who would do that?  We (NWS) aren't about to say that they can't; our official stance is already crystal clear.  Its not like they're endangering the public.  They're just doing something silly that is probably getting them ratings while making meteorology look stupid. 

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TWC must be thrilled that their naming matched up a popular cartoon character with the giant nor'easter. No way this catches on as much as it did if it's "called" Orko.

 

Can sponsored winter storm names be that far away? "Nemo" has given a heck of a lot of free publicity to competitor Disney/ABC. Can't wait for Winter Storm Cialis in late 2013 and Winter Storm Slap-Chop in 2014.

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Who would do that?  We (NWS) aren't about to say that they can't; our official stance is already crystal clear.  Its not like they're endangering the public.  They're just doing something silly that is probably getting them ratings while making meteorology look stupid. 

I'm not sure I'm capable of making this argument, but...

 

TWC (NBC) and other big media do this sort of thing to show how culturally powerful they are. They slowly change the popular notion of the English language without the permission of Her Majesty. Eventually, words that fall out of fashion become something that someone will lose his job for using on the air. Mocking is part of their strategy....e.g. only fools don't know the name of a storm. The TWC name, that is.

 

Proof: look at this (cute I admit) photo HubbDave posted of another young mind being tortured by corporate media:

http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/39248-feb-89-blizzard-of-13-images/page-4#entry2106320

Yes, it is a very minor example. It is a fun snowman fish sculpture, and it looks like I'm over-the-top. But, it's just a small part of their big strategy. To control young minds.

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I'll probably never refer to it as nemo in the future.. I'm more of a "Blizzard of Feb 8-9, 2013" type of guy.  I was against the naming but I found it at least maringally useful on social media to find things.  The name was stupid... the idea is self serving.  But I don't think it's really hurting anyone.

 

I don't see how you can come to a perfect set of requirements for naming a winter storm.. they are too nebulous. I'd rather see them overnamed than undernamed.

They need at least some sort of objective requirements, the current system is incredibly biased and scientifically useless. I simply don't understand why they haven't made criteria already, it would make this whole thing much more legitimate, and the criteria could be modified based on input from the meteorology community.

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Some criteria ideas that are easy to calculate from model output: integrated kinetic energy of the surface wind, areal extent of wintry precipitation and total area that received precip, integrated accumulated wintry precipitation, average accumulated wintry precipitation, areal extent of 1"+, 3"+,6"+, 12"+, duration, average temperature and wind chill in the cold sector, pressure, integrated geopotential height anomaly, and tropopause height gradient across the storm.

 

The key would be to find a simple combination of a few variables that for the most part describes the range of winter storm intensity, it would be easy to get bogged down by using too many variables. They could at least start trying though...

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They don't want it based "scientifically", they want it based on societal impact, or so a friend there told me recently.

 

NWS probably isn't ever going to do this, but if we were, it'd probably be based on winter storm warnings.  If it gets a winter storm warning, it gets a name, something along those lines.

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Some criteria ideas that are easy to calculate from model output: integrated kinetic energy of the surface wind, areal extent of wintry precipitation and total area that received precip, integrated accumulated wintry precipitation, average accumulated wintry precipitation, areal extent of 1"+, 3"+,6"+, 12"+, duration, average temperature and wind chill in the cold sector, pressure, integrated geopotential height anomaly, and tropopause height gradient across the storm.

 

The key would be to find a simple combination of a few variables that for the most part describes the range of winter storm intensity, it would be easy to get bogged down by using too many variables. They could at least start trying though...

 

+1. It should based scientifically imo also. The naming should not be just favored for populated area either - any area meeting the criteria should have a name on it then - if TWC is serious about continuing this.

 

I noticed around here this storm was referred to as Nemo by several people I know and also a few news stations called it that. In fact I was at a store on Saturday and their was a couple people talking about "Nemo" and the impact it was having. The naming idea definitely caught on in the social media and seems to be spreading.

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Doubtful the name has been around for centuries and was even used in Homer's Odyssey

A lawyer might be able to prove that the whole list is really inspired by pop culture.  I'm not saying it would work, but I think they could take a stab at it and force a behind-the-scenes deal.

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