Naming winter storms

[Duke87 1,070]

We've been naming Hurricanes for a while. Now the folks at The Weather Channel have decided to start naming winter storms, and for this year they've got a list of names pulled from ancient mythology. The nor'easter currently hitting the northeast is named Athena.

[Haljackey 17,441]

Does it have tropical storm force winds or greater? If not I consider this nothing more than a gimmick.

[Meg 368]

Sure, why not? It's easier to create a hashtag that way.

[Alejandro24 575]

Is not a bad idea, but a winter storm doesn't have a clasification or a mesearument as the hurricanes or tropical storms. Seems to be that the purpuose of name the storms with a name is only to create a hashtag, as Meg said.

Here the cold fronts are numered, we're now expecting the number 9.

[hym 358]

I suspect that this is more of a gimmick to help the Weather Channel feel like it is more important than it is.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

If they can get agreement and definitions from NOAA, then it will work. Otherwise it is just a gimmick.

in any case, they had better hope the they never get to Poseidon. Athena is the goddess of intelligence and thought. Hardly good nomenclature for storms.

For those who haven't studied mythology, Poseidon is the god of the seas, storms, and earthquakes, and is also called the Thunderer. He is the brother of Zeus who wields the thunderbolt (lightening). Better hope we never have that many storms in a given winter.

Off hand, I can't remember any Greek god whose name begins with the B sound (μν). [The Greek b is a v sound]. Briesis comes to mind, but she is a Trojan captive of Achilles in the Trojan War.

[Alejandro24 575]

If they can get agreement and definitions from NOAA, then it will work. Otherwise it is just a gimmick.

...

Exactly, winter storms are not like tropical storms. Usually the name of another storms cames with the place or the date, like the saint of the day that the storm hits X place, that's a good reference.

[Duke87 1,070]

Off hand, I can't remember any Greek god whose name begins with the B sound (μν). [The Greek b is a v sound]. Briesis comes to mind, but she is a Trojan captive of Achilles in the Trojan War.

It's not all gods and goddesses and not all Greek, The full list is:

Athena

Brutus

Caesar

Draco

Euclid

Freyr

Gandolf

Helen

Iago

Jove

Khan

Luna

Magnus

Nemo

Orko

Plato

Q

Rocky

Saturn

Triton

Urko

Virgil

Walda

Xerxes

Yogi

Zeus

Suppose they really couldn't think of one for Q and weren't willing to skip any letters like the NWS does for hurricanes...

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Q isn't hard to get. How about Quintus? After Quintus Fabius 'Cunctator' the Roman general who defeated Hannibal. Cunctator means one who waits. Q. Fabius shadowed Hannibal and only attacked him when conditions were favourable. A kind of massive guerrilla war.

And I hope they really spelled it Gandalf.

[hym 358]

I suspect that they didn't to avoid copyright issues.

[Easy Bakes 253]

or how bout just Q.

From Star Trek:NG

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

I suspect that they didn't to avoid copyright issues.

Almost all are public domain for sure except Gandalf which I suspect is owned by the J.R.R. Tolkien estate. Quintus is just Latin for five. Numbers are not usually copyright.

[Alejandro24 575]

Q? Since those names are mitological, Is not hard to call it Quetzalcoatl or just simply Quetzal.