Do you remember the Blizzard of ’96? Actually, okay, if you didn’t live on the Eastern seaboard probably not. But! For a thrilling snowpocalypse it sure had one boring ass name. Well, the Weather Channel wants to fix that problem by giving winter storms wonderfully geeky names.
Starting with this winter, the Weather Channel will name storms that have a strong chance of causing a “significant impact on populations.” This is a good thing because when you give severe storms a name, it makes people pay attention, which increases the likelihood that they’ll prepare. A group of “senior meteorologists” got together and came up with this fantastic list of names for this year’s storms.
Athena — The Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, inspirations, justice, mathematics and all things wonderful
Brutus — Roman Senator and best known assassin of Julius — Title used by Roman and Byzantine Emperors
Draco — The first legislator of Athens in Ancient 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.
Kahn — 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, among other things who had a planet named after him
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
Wow. That’s what we get for letting a bunch of meteorology nerds name the storms! They are geeky and awesome, yes, but are you really going to be afraid of Severe Winter Storm Ukko? [Weather Underground and The Weather Channel—Thanks, Matt!]
Image via xuenay/ Flickr
