While Californians have been staying dry and warm, the rest of us on the eastern half of the country have been experiencing the cold, snow, and flooding brought on by Winter Storm Jonas.
The non-stop coverage of the storm began Thursday morning as meteorologists predicted that the brunt of the storm would begin hitting the south throughout the night and into Friday morning. As I began seeing Winter Storm Jonas pop up all over the radio, television, Facebook, and even Snapchat – it made me consider the purpose and history of “branding” a winter storm.
While tropical storms and hurricanes have been named by the U.S. government’s NOAA since the early 1950s as a method of reducing confusion when multiple storms were occurring at the same time, winter storms did not begin being named until 2012, with The Weather Channel’s description of a snow storm called “Snowtober” that took off on social media.
Unlike the government regulated naming of hurricanes, however, winter storm naming has only been condoned by The Weather Channel themselves, which has created much debate among meteorologists and media outlets.
Critics of the policy say TWC is just using it as a marketing stunt, with Accuweather founder Joel N. Myers saying, “In unilaterally deciding to name winter storms, The Weather Channel has confused media spin with science and public safety.” Many other major news outlets such as the New York Times and CNN have also refused to use the names.
While Chief meteorologist for TWC, Bryan Norcross, did say the advent of the naming idea did stem from social media, TWC is sticking to their guns, saying that naming winter storms helps people identify when a storm is going to have a serious impact, and give them an easy and up-to-date way to track the storm’s path. Even Mary Glackin, senior vice president for public-private partnerships at the Weather Company and former NOAA employee, says naming storms is best for public safety, with social media becoming the main news source for many Americans.
Despite the naming convention remaining up for debate, it is safe to say that Winter Storm Jonas took off over the weekend with hashtags such as #Jonasblizzard, #Jonas2016, and #winterstormJonas trending on social media all weekend.
So, what do you think – Winter storm naming – Marketing ploy? Good for public safety? A little bit of both?
References:
http://www.ibtimes.com/whats-storm-name-weather-channel-policy-draws-critics-catches-1073016
http://www.nytimes.com/live/winter-storm-jonas/weather-channel-storm-naming-tk/
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