Ever-Changing Wikipedia

As I was searching the web for information and tidbits to share with you all about tornadoes. I went on Wikipedia, just to check things out, and remembered my post, Naming Nemo. I wrote it back in early February and had decided to make a change to an article in Wikipedia. 

I had been writing about winter storms back then and noticed that Wikipedia was not using The Weather Channel's list of storm names for the 2012-2013 winter storm season. I noticed the page for the nor'easter back in November 2012 was titled November 2012 nor'easter instead of Winter Storm Athena. There was little information concerning the new system of naming winter storms, so I decided to update the site.

I just went back to Wikipedia, looked up The Weather Channel, and scrolled down to the section titled,
2012–13 naming winter storms. My changes are still there and someone even added to them! There is now a redirect link to a different topic: See also: Winter storm naming controversy. 

Also, I had listed out the storms that had occurred up until that point. Someone added more storms to the list: Pluto, Q, Rocky, and Saturn, but left the total as fifteen, instead of changing it to nineteen.

I decided to go back in and correct the storm total to twenty-two and add in the rest of the storms that occurred this season. Below is what is now posted, with my latest additions in red.

It officially named the nor'easter that hit the East Coast of the United States in November 2012 after the Greek goddess Athena. So far, in the 2012-2013 season, the Weather Channel has named twenty-two winter storms: Athena, Brutus, Caesar, Draco, Euclid, Freyr, Gandolf, Helen, Iago, Jove, Khan, Luna, Magnus, Nemo, Orko, Pluto, Q, Rocky, Saturn, Triton, Ukko, and Virgil. [24]

Multiple factors are taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to name a winter storm. This includes, but is not limited to, predicted snowfall and other precipitation, wind speeds, and the timing of the storm.[23]

The Weather Channel has provided the reasoning behind why they named some of the storms: Athena,[25] Brutus,[26] Gandolf,[27] Iago,[28] Khan,[29] Luna,[30] Magnus,[31] Nemo[32], Saturn[33], and Virgil[34].

I believe that the winter storm 2012-13 period is probably over. However, if another storm occurs either myself, or the person who made the changes before me, will update the information once again.

Next season I plan to again update this section. I will either be stating that The Weather Channel has once again released a list of names for the upcoming winter storm season, or I will be stating that The Weather Channel will no longer be naming winter storms.

It will be interesting to see if they continue this trend or if they fold under the disapproval of other weather services, like The National Weather Service!

Naming Nemo

I discussed why the Weather Channel  (TWC) started naming winter storms in my post, The Nor'Easter Ate My Homework.  I thought I was done with the topic of nor'easters and would be moving on.  However, the weather had other plans for me.

Enter Winter Storm Nemo.

Here I was sitting at home working on this post, having already been shoveled out, waiting to hear how my family in NH is making out with all that snow. While, waiting I decided to check out Wikipedia. Now, I don't use information from Wikipedia when I write my blog posts, but sometimes I will go there and check out what sources they used for their articles when it relates to my blog topic.  I wondered how much information Wikipedia would have about Winter Storm Nemo, and was shocked. The article is huge!

I then tried searching for Winter Storms 2012, to see if there was a list of all the storms and their names. There isn't one! I did find an article on Winter Storm Athena but it redirects to November 2012 nor'easter.  I then realized that the article for Nemo also redirected! Wikipedia is redirecting Winter Storm Nemo to February 2013 nor'easter.  It would appear that Wikipedia does not plan to participate in the Weather Channels naming of the storms.

Interesting.

I then went to the Weather Channel article, and waaaaaay down at the bottom, found a short paragraph about the named winter storms:

2012–13 naming winter storms

Beginning in the fall of 2012, the Weather Channel has named major winter storms. It officially named the nor'easter that hit the East Coast of the United States in November 2012 after the Greek goddess Athena. In response, the National Weather Service announced on November 7, 2012 that it would not recognize the Weather Channel’s name for winter storms, stating in a press release that "it does not use the name of winter storms in its products."^[23][24][25]

There is really so much more to it than that! This doesn't mention why TWC chose to name the storms, or what determines when a storm is named. It also hasn't been updated to mention the named storms since Athena.  I decided to update this section as a way to wrap up my discussion on winter storms.  This is what the article looked like after I finished editing it today (9 Feb 2013):

2012–13 naming winter stormsBeginning in the fall of 2012, the Weather Channel has named major winter storms. The decision to start naming notable winter storms came as a way to more easily spread knowledge and raise awareness. By naming winter storms, the public will find it easier to follow storm information, social media will be able to refer to, and discuss the storm, more easily, and people will have an easier time referring to the storm after it occurs. ^[23]

It officially named the nor'easter that hit the East Coast of the United States in November 2012 after the Greek goddess Athena. So far, in the 2012-2013 season, the Weather Channel has named fifteen winter storms: Athena, Brutus, Caesar, Draco, Euclid, Freyr, Gandolf, Helen, Iago, Jove, Khan, Luna, Magnus, Nemo, and Orko. ^[24]

Multiple factors are taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to name a winter storm. This includes, but is not limited to, predicted snowfall and other precipitation, wind speeds, and the timing of the storm. ^[24]

The Weather Channel has provided the reasoning behind why they named some of the storms: Athena ^[25], Brutus ^[26], Gandolf ^[27], Iago ^[28], Khan ^[29], Luna ^[30], Magnus ^[31], and Nemo ^[32].

In response, the National Weather Service announced on November 7, 2012 that it would not recognize the Weather Channel’s name for winter storms, stating in a press release that "it does not use the name of winter storms in its products."^[33][34][35]

I have to say, this was not an easy task! I used the help documents that Wikipedia supplied extensively, and still my citations at the bottom of the article were not perfect. They looked sloppy compared to the other citations. I went back and changed them all using the format that the original links used.  When I hit "Save" my browser timed out and the changes did not go through! I had to go back in, but this time I noticed that in the editing box there are citation templates!! This time I went through and used the templates provided, which was much easier. Now I think my citations look even better than the ones that were already there!

I encourage people to be bold and make corrections and edits to Wikipedia, just be prepared to spend some time on it! We will have to come back at some point and see if my additions stuck! Also, if you see anything that you think I should change, or if there is more information I could include, please leave a comment below. Don't be shy, I welcome the help!

P.S. Check out what a fellow blogger wrote about Winter Storm Nemo in her blog about NYC-Times Square! 

The Nor’Easter Ate My Homework!

All of us living on the east coast have experienced many a winter storm.  Some of the worst, or rather many of the worst, we have called a Nor'easter.  But, what exactly is a Nor'easter and why are they so severe?

According to The Weather Channel’s weather.com a Nor'easter is a storm that starts with a large area of low pressure in the Gulf Stream or of the East Coast.  But what is an area of low pressure?

About.com’s Education: Geography page tells us that air pressure refers to how much force is being applied to the surface of the Earth by the weight of the air.  

Wait, what?! The air doesn't have weight!

Actually, it does! 

See, the air is made up of molecules, such as nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and methane. These are not always present uniformly, meaning the amount of the different gases can change. They also differ in size from one another and move differently.  These factors combine to give the air weight by changing the temperature and density of the air mass in different areas. The air over Utah may be colder and have more carbon dioxide today, while the air over Tennessee may be warmer and have more nitrogen than carbon dioxide. Therefore, the pressure of the air over Utah will be different than the pressure of the air over Tennessee.

When there are a lot of air particles up there movin' around the pressure increases, and when there aren't a lot of air particles the pressure then decreases.  Check out the 10 minute video below for further explanation:

OK, so that’s easy enough, low pressure means an area of less air particles. But, how does this make a storm? 

Something has to make the area of low pressure and these things are typically warm air and high winds, which sounds to me like the beginning of a storm. Now, there is a lot more to atmospheric pressure, more details and more attributing factors, but this will get us started in understanding a Nor'easter.

So, we are back to our area of low pressure in the Gulf or off the east coast of the Atlantic.  Warm air, high winds, and well, access to a lot of water.  This area of low pressure now starts to travel north, east, or northeast, which could bring it up into any of the states along the east coast, up into Canada, or just out to sea.  The Weather Channel (TWC) tells us that if the storm heads west of coastal cities like Boston or NYC then those areas will end up with rain, but if the storm stays just off the coast and has plenty of water in the clouds and enough cold air to make snow… BAM! Happy snow day children!

So I guess the storm is called a Nor'easter because it happens on the east coast and heads north? 

Well, not exactly.  The storm gets its name because of the northeasterly winds that blow in AHEAD of the storm.  The winds can be very strong, and the storm itself can pack a punch with continued high winds, large amount of snow, sleet, or even freezing rain.

Even though we frequently associate the Nor'easter with winter, it can occur any time of year! These storms have a peak season from September to April and storms occurring then are often stronger than storms at other times.  HowStuffWorks explains that when the low pressure system with its warm air collides with cold air from the Arctic Mass it “fuels” the storm. 

The HowStuffWorks article, written by Laurie L. Dove, brought up another interesting tidbit that I had also planned to mention.  You might have noticed that winter storms now have names! This started with the nor'easter that slammed into an already suffering east coast after Hurricane Sandy.  TWC called the storm Athena, and has continued to name winter storms all season.  According to The Weather Channel, they are naming storms in order to bring attention to them and the danger they cause.  Naming the storms will make them stick out in people’s minds, and make it more difficult to just ignore them.  TWC believes that these storms are dangerous and that people need to understand the dangers and how to protect themselves.  

These are the reasons for naming the storms listed on TWC’s article linked above:

• Naming a storm raises awareness.
• Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress.
• A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
• In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
• A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future.

TWC took it upon themselves to create a list of names for the storm:

Take a look at the article for an explanation of each of the chosen names. 

From what I could find online we have had storms up to Magnus, though I could have sworn there was a winter storm Nemo too.  It can be difficult to find information on these storms by name because not everyone is using them. TWC is privately owned and did not receive backing from the National Weather Service to name the storms.  It will be interesting to see if other organizations end up joining in on the naming of the storms, or if TWC channel will have to continue on naming storms by themselves, or if this will end up being the only season with named storms.

Here are the links I used in writing this article and some additional links on the topic:

Cited Links:

• The Weather Channel - Nor'Easters
• About.com - Low and High Pressure
• HowStuffWorks - What's a Nor'Easter?
• TWC - Why TWC is Naming Storms
• TWC - Winter Storm Names for 2012

Additional Links:

• 10 Worst Nor'Easters of All Time
• The Perfect Storm (movie)

Alright, it’s about time to wrap this up.  Hopefully, you now know a little more about Nor'easters. I know I have learned quite a bit myself.  Please check out the pages where I gathered my information from.  They are linked above but I will also include the links again below, along with some other cool sites that are Nor'easter related. 

Please feel free to share any information you have about these storms, or any questions.  I also welcome your stories about the Nor'easters you've experienced!