The Alignment of Winter Storm Naming and Key Messages

The National Weather Service and its media partners have been alerting the public about winter storms for decades. In 2012, The Weather Channel began naming winter storms to give them an identity, much in the same way this is done for tropical cyclones. This helps protect the public by raising awareness of their hazards, makes it easier to find information on various social media platforms and is valuable in recall and post-storm tracking.

While the National Hurricane Center names tropical cyclones, the National Weather Service does not name winter storms. The Weather Prediction Center, however, does issue a special product known as “Key Messages” ahead of and during major winter storms. These messages highlight the most important aspects of the forecast. This talk examines the correlation between named winter storms and Key Messages, which was found to align well despite each organization using independent criteria for their issuance.