FARGO, N.D. - The naming of winter storms has received media attention again this week as a major blizzard affected the densely populated regions of the Middle Atlantic and Northeast. Some media outlets choose to name winter storms in order to help the public understand and take action against the winter storm. To clarify, winter storms aren’t named through the National Weather Service and most stations disregard naming winter storms to avoid confusion between the weather community and the public.
The National Hurricane Center has been naming tropical storms and hurricanes for decades. However, tropical storms all have similar characteristics, unlike winter storms, which can bring widely different types of weather.
Several years ago, a few television stations began issuing tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings on their own, apart from the National Weather Service. But this often confused the public because one station would clarify it as a warning and another station would not. This is why today we only use one agency, the National Weather Service, to issue severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings.
Locally, the Grand Forks Herald has taken up the naming of blizzards only, but other regional media have not taken up this practice.
