The National Weather Service has a message for The Weather Channel: Don't mess with its storm-naming system.
The Washington Post's Jason Samenow reports that The Weather Channel named the nor'easter headed for the Eastern Seaboard "Athena." The National Weather Service did not like this.
In a blunt response, the organization released a statement saying they "do not use name winter storms" and asked others to refrain from using it. See below:
To be fair, The Weather Channel announced in early October that it would start naming "noteworthy winter storms" during the 2012-13 season.
Here's a bullet-point list of their reasons:
- Naming a storm raises awareness.
- Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress.
- A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
- In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
- A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future.
In the case of Athena, The Weather Channel explained in a post today that the "the main reason for naming the storm is due to additional post-Sandy impacts." This includes major disruptions to roads and airports and "life-threatening conditions from wind, cold, snow and ice."
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