Weather Channel to name snowstorms again this winter

Ready for storm Astro?

That's the first name on the list of winter storm names released Wednesday by the Weather Channel. For the third winter in a row, the network will be naming major snowstorms.

"Last season we named 26 ferocious winter storms spanning across all regions of the U.S.," said Tom Niziol, winter weather expert for The Weather Channel. "Improving communications is a key part of The Weather Channel team's core mission to keep the public safe and informed in severe weather events."

Two winters ago, the first season of the Weather Channel list, the most memorable storm was Nemo, which walloped New England with up to 3 feet of snow in February 2013 and killed 14 people.

Last winter, the one that seemed to capture the most social media attention was Hercules in January, Niziol said. That storm killed at least 15 people as it unleashed heavy snow from the Midwest to the Northeast, and also ushered in the first use of last winter's buzzword, the polar vortex.

No other private meteorology firm nor the National Weather Service uses the names coined by The Weather Channel. Two years ago, the weather service released this statement about it: "The National Weather Service has no opinion about private weather enterprise products and services. ... While the National Weather Service does not name winter storms, we do rate major winter storms after the fact."

On Wednesday, weather service spokesman Chris Vaccaro confirmed their position has not changed since then.

Niziol said in a phone interview Tuesday that there have been "ongoing discussions among our partners in the weather community" about expanding the network's use of winter storm names.

"We love the idea, and we want to share it," Niziol said.

However, no formal discussions have taken place between the weather service and the Weather Channel about it.

According to the Weather Channel, the storm-naming criteria are based on weather service thresholds for winter storm warnings, the storm's expected impacts on a population center, and potential geographic surface area to be affected by the storm.

After Astro, the rest of the names are Bozeman, Cato, Damon, Eris, Frona, Gorgon, Hektor, Iola, Juno, Kari, Linus, Marcus, Neptune, Octavia, Pandora, Quantum, Remus, Sparta, Thor, Ultima, Venus, Xander, Yuli, and Zelus. The "W" storm will be voted on in an online poll on Facebook, Twitter and weather.com.

A few headlines this winter might include: Cato clobbers Cleveland, Hektor hammers Hartford, Linus lashes Lansing and Pandora pounds Pittsburgh.

This season's "B" storm name, Bozeman, is dedicated to the students in a Latin class at Bozeman High School in Bozeman, Mont. For a second year, the winter storm names for 2014-15 are derived from lists created by these students.