Hello Yolo: Winter storm names out
Ready for Winter Storm Yolo? How about Echo, Goliath, Jonas and Mars?
For the fourth year, the Weather Channel will again name winter storms this season, in a pre-selected alphabetical list from Ajax to Zandor.
The storm-naming criteria are based on National Weather Service thresholds for winter storm warnings and the number of people in the area expected to be affected by the storm, the Weather Channel said in a statement.
Winter storms will be named whenever the predicted weather exceeds the naming criteria.
“In this information-saturated world, a headline/hashtag is key,” said Mary Glackin, senior vice president of public-private partnerships at the Weather Company, which owns the Weather Channel. “We need to recognize the importance of serving people in the way they find easiest to consume information.”
No other private meteorology firm nor the National Weather Service uses the names coined by the Weather Channel, though the network would like to see more widespread use of the names.
Reaction to the names has been mixed: The Verge calls it “cynical pap designed to maximize social sharing and, thereby, profit for the network,” while an opinion piece for The
Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang said the “names are here to stay. We should move beyond the disagreement and exploit this fact.”
Three winters ago, the first season of the Weather Channel list, the most memorable storm was Nemo, which killed 14 people and walloped New England with up to 3 feet of snow in February 2013. Two years ago, Hercules was among the most memorable, while last year Juno made headlines in January.
According to winter weather expert Tom Niziol of the Weather Channel, there were 22 named winter storms in the 2014-15 season, compared with 26 named storms in 2013-14 and 27 storms in 2012-13.
The names for this winter season were picked for the third year by students from the Latin Club at Bozeman High School in Bozeman, Mont.