We are snowed in today. Stevex6 would call it flurries but that is not the purpose of this post. My wife noted that the TV sometimes referred to the storm as 'Helena' but she was not aware of winter storms being names as are Tropical hurricanes. That caused me to find this list of the names selected for this season: https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/winter-storm-names-2016-2017 The highlight to me was the names were selected through input from a high school Latin class in Bozeman, Montana. Of course the other highlight is the fighting over the practice between the Weather Channel and other weather services that consider the idea inappropriate. I'm happy to see that classical studies has not completely abandoned Bozeman. I wonder if anyone there still (or is it 'still there') collects ancient coins. I really would like to make this post coin related but the Weather Channel defined Helena as the girl from Troy for whom I have no coins rather than the mother of Constantine for whom I do. I can't help wondering how many names match those of Latin students. May Winter Storm Helena (or the unnamed as you prefer) not impair the NYIC this week.
I have pretty much decided that when my current dog (named Gromit) punches out for the last time, that I will name my next dog Argos. Having said that I do not understand the concept of naming winter storms and I hope the trend dies off, it is just silly.
I'm on the "Weather Channel needs to get over itself" side of this debate. Hurricanes behave like individual entities, even though they aren't, and it's often important (especially at sea) to distinguish among multiple hurricanes going on at the same time. For winter storm systems, there's no such need. It's just a marketing ploy. Our local forecasters were calling for 6-9 inches here, and the models were indicating a foot or more. At the last minute, though, warm air surged further north than expected, so we got a half-inch or so of sleet topped with an inch or two of snow. Still pretty, but disappointing; the kids can't build things, but it's enough to shut everything down for an extended period, especially since it's not supposed to get back above freezing until Tuesday. I expect to get out for groceries tomorrow sometime, but I don't expect to make it back to the office until Tuesday, if then. There's no telling when the kids will get back to school.
In my area if I ask folks, "Do you remember the blizzard of 1993?" Their answer is which one.... We had several different storms one right after another. If your house was damaged in one of these storms, it would sure make it a lot easier to identify which one for the insurance company if they were named... Anyone that does not like naming storms has probably never had to go through the claim process with a storm related claim...
And today, in L.A., blue skies and gonna be 74 today. I actually like that they name storms & hurricanes. Easy to distinguish if they talk about one from years past instead of "1988" or something.
we got 28 inches in 8 hours last week....no name for that storm, and they will not name any storm near here (unless one from the south or east comes this way). Unless its massive, naming them is dumb.
I've never seen a slot for "storm name" on an insurance form, but I've definitely seen a slot for date and location on every single one. If the insurance company wants to check your claim against weather records, that's the information they'll need, whether or not the storm also has a name.
The weather channel started naming winter storms a few years ago, as far as i know they are the only ones doing it, and i agree it's silly.
Usually Flagstaff can handle big snow storms. One year ( I forgot the year, maybe a named storm would have helped) we got 56 inches in 3 days. The roads were clears if you were able to get out of the driveway. Today is nice and sunny, might even make it to the 50's
I understand that we'll be getting your warm-air hand-me-downs later this week. It's supposed to get above 70 by Friday.
I didn't realize they named winter/snow storms. Overnight Thursday into Friday we received an inch or maybe 2 of snow. They closed the schools for that, unbelievable.
Yeah, I feel the pain. Only 63F at the moment here in Miami, and look at this awful weather: I will say this, it is a little on the windy side, as you can see from the ripples in the water on the lake, but aside from that it is picture perfect. Hardly a cloud in the sky and it's neither hot nor cold.
Mentor, thanks for that OP-post ... pretty cool storm names (a whole lotta coin-relevant-names) Oh, and I agree with Aethelred that "Argos" would be a pretty sweet dog-name. When I was a kid, my Dad named our first English Spaniel "Ajax" ... sadly, Ajax died at a very young age of distemper (*sigh*) ..... a year or so later, Dad bought our second English Spaniel and named it "Phoenix" (risen from the ashes and all) => man, my Dad is sooo fricken cool, eh? SIDENOTE: I ain't that clever ..... I named my girl dog "Larry"
