What happened to the weather Channel? That's what bloggers are saying. People are noticing that the weather channel is not as it used to be and it;s coming up with some crazy names for storms during the 2013-2014 season.
The Weather Channel is the favorite means of getting information about the weather in the U.S.
Uproxx.com's Danger Guerrero says that it's not a good idea for the Weather Channel to name storms by itself. Guerrero also calls this a 'descent to madness.'
Looking up at the banner of names for storms, the Uproxx writer claims that the Weather Channel has gone insane.
The Weather Channel has this to say as retort to the storm naming conventions: The decision to begin naming storms came about as part of The Weather Channel's program to find the best possible ways to communicate severe weather information on all distribution platforms, including social media.
Hashtags are an intrinsic part of social media, and a storm name proved to be the best way to efficiently and systematically convey storm information. Storm-name hashtags have been used with tropical storms and hurricanes for years, and Winter Storm Nemo's billion-plus impressions on Twitter last winter demonstrated that the same system is ideal for winter storms as well.
Guerrero's argument is that the names of the storms are wildly exaggerated, adding, it sounds like a call sheet for "American Gladiators tryout than" than a reflection of meteorological information. In layman's terms, why do the names have to be so hyped-up?
As an example of sensationalizing the weather, the title "WINTER STORM KRONOS BEARING DOWN ON THE EAST COAST" is hardly a description about a few inches of snowfall on a Saturday in late January.
The word blizzard is also used extravagantly by media to discuss storms. But a blizzard does not require a snowfall. Technically a blizzard lasts more than three hours with gusts of wind at 35 miles/hour.
Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com expert Senior Meteorologist says, "Blizzard conditions often occur on the Plains without any falling snow with a high frequency of strong winds'
While it's important to convey the accuracy of storms, sometimes names of storms or even descriptions in the media can be exaggerated.
The Weather Channel has been naming storms for a second year so that storms are classified into some meteorological criteria so that it can communicate the severity of storms across all platforms with an emphasis on social media.
