AP Photo/David Duprey, Facebook.com/FindingNemo
It appears to be. The National Weather service has ordered the name not be used in official communications as winter storms are not named by the NWS, just hurricanes and tropical storms. The name was given to the storm, and trademarked, by The Weather Channel. They have trademarked many names from pop culture and mythologies, like Zeus and Gandalf. The Week has more information:
While critics say the names are a marketing gimmick, officials from The Weather Channel says they help foster communication. “If we can hashtag a storm with a name, that leads to a one-stop shop to exchange information,” Tom Niziol, a winter weather expert at The Weather Channel, told Bloomberg when the names were unveiled.
Either way, it appears The Weather Channel is winning. “The particular genius of The Weather Channel’s winter-storm naming, no matter how much it drives other weather professionals nuts, is that if forces dissenters to come up with something equally sticky,” says Andrew Beaujon atPoynter. “And it’s a little late to get a ‘-pocalypse’ or a ‘-geddon’ ending to catch on.”
Well, The Weather Channel’s rivals have now been warned. The next on the list is Orko, a character from the He-Man cartoon — surely someone can do better than that?
