Via: Tuned In
On my recent vacation, I drove through two storms so momentous and terrible that they had their own names. Traveling from Ann Arbor to suburban Detroit after Christmas, I passed through Winter Storm Euclid. A few days later, we made the nearly 600-mile return drive from Michigan to Brooklyn under the chill breath of Winter Storm Freyr. Driving in the snow is never especially fun, of course, but I generally associate named storms with cyclones, hurricanes, megastorms. So what frozen terror did Euclid and Freyr blow at us? Were there whiteouts? Impassable roads? Six-foot-snow drifts? White Walkers emerging from beyond The Wall? Maybe somewhere. Where I was, it just snowed, like it does in winter. Then eventually it stopped. Driving was slow. There were some accidents. After Euclid, there was enough accumulation in Michigan to make a modest snowman. After Freyr, Brooklyn was wet with puddles; if you looked hard, you could find a patch of whitish dust on the sidewalk. Damn you, cruel Freyr! Damn you to hell! (MORE: How Are Hurricanes Named?) The reason these unremarkable winter events required their own names: The Weather Channel has willed it so. For the first time, TWC has announced its own slate of names for snowstorms, a la hurricanes. Whereas the decades-old hurricane-naming system tends to give us monster storms with ironically homely names like “Katrina” and “Sandy,” TWC’s telegenic list gives us snow showers with hyperbolic names that reference mythology (“Zeus,” Jove”), history (“Caesar”), Shakespeare (“Iago”) and, seemingly, Harry Potter (“Draco”). The channel apparently gave the naming job to a nerdy 11-year-old boy. Announcing the plan this fall, TWC gave high-minded reasons. “Our goal is to better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events,” the channel announced. “The fact is, a storm with a name is easier to follow, which will mean fewer surprises and more preparation.” Uh-huh. Even assuming the most selfless intentions, there’s the obvious chance for TWC to benefit. Storms that people “follow” and “pay attention to” are storms that
Read full story at: Tuned In
Posted: January 4th, 2013
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