Now, there is no logical reason to wish for more winter storms. Unless, of course, your name begins with Y and the usual amount of storms never reaches the end of the alphabet. Or you’re a yogadork and excited about this year’s yoga winter storm.
Oh, wait. You didn’t know they’re naming winter storms now? It’s true! The Weather Channel has moved on from naming tropical storms and hurricanes and will start giving names to the cute little snowy storms born every winter from now on beginning with the 2012-2013 season. And the weather team seem to be having a bit of fun with it.
They have many scientific reasons, of course, like raising awareness and influencing a more serious center for research, but why have they started naming winter storms now? It’s fun!
“Finally, it might even be fun and entertaining and that in itself should breed interest from our viewing public and our digital users. For all of these reasons, the time is right to introduce this concept for the winter season of 2012-13.”
While the mostly Roman and Greek influenced names like Athena, Brutus and Caesar will likely see some evening news action, ‘Q’, named after the NY subway line might not. Which doesn’t bode well for poor little Y. But if we do reach the 25th winter storm this season it will be named…wait for it…Yogi! In honor of “people who do yoga.” We’ve made it people! Though we would be more impressed with YogaDork. Next year?
Here’s the full list of inaugural winter storm names for the 2012-2013 season:
- Athena: The Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, inspirations, justice, mathematics and all things wonderful.
- Brutus: Roman Senator and best known assassin of Julius Caesar.
- Caesar: Title used by Roman and Byzantine emperors.*
- Draco: The first legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece.
- Euclid: A mathematician in Ancient Greece, the father of geometry.
- Freyr: A Norse god associated with fair weather, among other things.
- Gandolf: A character in a 1896 fantasy novel in a pseudo-medieval countryside.
- Helen: In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus.
- Iago: Enemy of Othello in Shakespeare’s play, Othello.
- Jove: The English name for Jupiter, the Roman god of light and sky.
- Khan: Mongolian conqueror and emperor of the Mongol empire.
- Luna: The divine embodiment of the moon in Roman mythology.
- Magnus: The Father of Europe, Charlemagne the Great, in Latin: Carolus Magnus.
- Nemo: A Greek boy’s name meaning “from the valley,” means “nobody” in Latin.
- Orko: The thunder god in Basque mythology.
- Plato: Greek philosopher and mathematician, who was named by his wrestling coach.
- Q: The Broadway Express subway line in New York City.
- Rocky: A single mountain in the Rockies.
- Saturn: Roman god of time, also the namesake of the planet Saturn in our solar system.
- Triton: In Greek mythology, the messenger of the deep sea, son of Poseidon.
- Ukko: In Finnish mythology, the god of the sky and weather.
- Virgil: One of ancient Rome’s greatest poets.
- Walda: Name from Old German meaning “ruler.”
- Xerxes: The fourth king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Xerxes the Great.
- Yogi: People who do yoga.
- Zeus: In Greek mythology, the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus and the gods who lived there.
