How The Weather Channel Became the Nation's Unofficial Namer of Winter Storms

Say what you will about the corny names the Weather Channel chooses for big winter storms—Pax, Janus, Atlas, Pow! Zam!—the company is giddy about how it’s caught on with the public since it started bestowing the monikers two years ago. “I think it’s been a tremendous success, and it just continues to build,” says Tom Niziol, the Weather Channel’s “winter weather expert” and a veteran meteorologist who helped launch the effort.

The company raised eyebrows in October 2012 when it announced plans to begin dubbing winter storms with Greek and Latin names such as Brutus, Gandolf, and Xerxes. Rival commercial weather firms accused the company of potentially confusing and misleading the public; the National Weather Service essentially rolled its eyes but stayed mum. “There were a lot of comments at the start of this that this was just a marketing exercise, but it’s anything but that,” Niziol says.