What's In A Name?

A rain storm by any other name would leave you soaked through and through...

The Weather Channel adopted the odious habit in 2012 of celebrating the launch of storms by giving names to the storms. It was a ploy aimed at making weather news more lucrative as well as more annoying than mere snow, rain, sleet, and tornadoes.
Al Roker was behind it all. Ever since NBC purchased The Weather Channel and made him king, his ever-present face is like Al Roker on the 8s, and anyone who tuned in for guidance on climate conditions has to sit through his seemingly inexhaustible schtick.
He has also become tyrannical and dictatorial, denouncing public officials who do not heed his premonitory warnings to close schools and keep cars off the roads. He has turned The Weather Channel effectively into his own climate bully pulpit.

Back to storm names:
http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/winter-storm-names-2014-2015-what-they-are-and-what-they-mean-20140929

The Weather Channel has released its list of winter storm names for the 2014-2015 season, the third annual rundown of names that will be attached to storms in the winter weather season...

Below is the list of 25 names to be used this season, as well as background on each and a guide for names with multiple or difficult pronunciations...

Astro (as-tro) – In Greek, it means star.

Bozeman – In honor of the Miss Shupe’s Bozeman High School Latin class, which provided the 2013-2014 list of winter storm names.

Cato (cay-to) – The name of a Roman statesman and his great-grandson, who were both known for integrity.

Damon (day-mon) – From Greek mythology; known for his loyalty.

Eris (air-is) – From Greek mythology; the goddess of discord.

Frona (froh-na) – Greek, short for Sofronia; related to the word for wise.

Gorgon (gore-gon) – From Greek mythology, one of three monsters; serpentine humanoids.

Hektor (hek-tor) – From Greek mythology, the Trojan champion who was killed by Achilles.

Iola (eye-oh-la) – From Greek mythology, a variant spelling of Iolë, a beautiful woman who Hercules wanted to marry, but could not.

Juno (joo-no) – From Roman mythology, a goddess who looked after the women of Rome.

Kari (care-ey) – A Finnish name derived from the Greek name Makarios from old-Greek meaning blessed or happy.

Linus (ly-nus) – From Greek Mythology, a son of Apollo known as a great musician.

Marcus (mar-cuss) – An Ancient Roman name referring to Mars, the god of war.

Neptune (nep-toon) – From Roman mythology, the god of the sea.

Octavia (ok-tay-vee-a) – The sister of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, who was also known as Octavian.

Pandora (pan-door-a) – From Greek mythology, the first human woman created by the gods...

 Hmmmm.
"Astro" is not Greek for star; rather, it is the Jetsons' dog.
"Bozeman" was also a Roman emperor, or should have been.
I had a great-aunt Sofronia, who was called Sophie, not Frona.

I will stay indoors during storm "Gorgon".... brrrr! serpentine humanoids.

(As I read about these weather topics, I came across the uninformative bit from last January, wherein Rush Limbaugh asserted that Al Roker and other media weather folks had created the polar vortex and used it as a Climate Change bugaboo:
http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/meet-rush-limbaughs-newest-arch-nemesis-al-roker_b82156

We are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country. And right on schedule the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it’s completely unprecedented. Because they’ve got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda, and they have. It’s called the “polar vortex.” The dreaded polar vortex.
Do you know what the polar vortex is? Have you ever heard of it?

Well, they just created it for this week…They’re in the middle of a hoax, they’re perpetrating a hoax, but they’re relying on their total dominance of the media to lie to you each and every day about climate change and global warming.

 Al Roker countered in Twitter with:

For all the doubters who say the media "created" the Polar Vortex: From the 1959 AMS Glossary of Meteorology... (and a jpeg of the definition follows)

However, I remember this well, for I was checking WeatherUnderground at the time, using their "WunderMap" to check the various weather models.
Nine days before the polar vortex arrived - and four days before it was mentioned on cable TV - I was looking at the GFS model data for conditions at the 850 millibar pressure level for the next 10 days, when I saw it.

"What the heck!?!" I said out loud, even though it was 3:00 AM, and no one else was about.

I checked the color coding for temperatures at the 850 mb, then looked back up to the map and tried to comprehend it, for it seemed a bit too extreme.

"That's gonna be a bitch." I said to myself.
It was, too.

Today's WunderMap GFS Model 850 millibar level Run at 00:00 GMT

(looking pretty mild today, getting colder towards end week)

 http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/

--