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!