Winter Storms will now have names all their own

The Weather Channel has announced it will now be giving names to severe winter storms, much as Hurricanes have been named for the past 60 years. On their website, the Weather Channel says giving names to the storms will allow forecasters to identify more serious weather events, and, as with hurricanes, create a sense of identity for that storm system.

After several years of using nicknames for severe winter weather, such as last year’s “Arctic Hurricane” off Alaska’s West Coast, and other weather events in the lower 48 nicknamed “snow-magedon” or “snow-pocalypse,” Winter storms will have names such as Athena, Brutus, and Gandolf.