Some people are calling the blizzard we're dealing with "Winter Storm Juno." Winter storms never used to get named like hurricanes do until recently and despite what some claim is a necessity, it's really just a way to market a brand. 

According to NOAA, tropical storm naming (another term for a hurricane) started as a way to identify tropical storms that lasted for several weeks along with other storms. By using a name, it was easier to identify a specific storm among several. To this day, hurricanes are the only type of storms that are named by the National Weather Service.

Then along came The Weather Channel. In 2011 we had a Nor'easter on Halloween that they dubbed "Snowtober" in all their forecasts. It seems someone at The Weather Channel saw this as a great marketing opportunity and started naming winter storms the following month with a Nor'easter in November that they called "Winter Storm Athena."

The Weather Channel claimed that naming winter storms would "improve communications of storm warnings and help reduce storm impacts."

To put it bluntly, the National Weather Service thought this was stupid. The NWS is a government run agency while The Weather Channel is a for-profit company. The NWS released a statement saying "The National Weather Service does not name winter storms because a winter storm's impact can vary from one location to another, and storms can weaken and redevelop, making it difficult to define where one ends and another begins." They went so far to ask all their offices not to use the names in their forecasts.

AccuWeather, The New York Times, The Washington Post and many other media outlets have all refused to use The Weather Channel's names for winter storms.

The names The Weather Channel chooses each year seem to be picked by geeks. They've used names like Gandolf, Vulcan, Khan, Q and Rocky. Gandolf is the wizard from The Lord of the Rings. Vulcan is the planet Spock is from in Star Trek and Khan and Q are villains from Star Trek. Q is a great name for a Star Trek villain or your favorite radio station, but a winter storm? Please.

They even let viewers vote on names for the season. You can help pick the name of the W storm if we get that far.

I personally agree with the National Weather Service. This naming isn't necessary and it's just a total marketing ploy to get you to watch The Weather Channel. No thanks. I like the local people much better.

If we're going to name winter storms, let's name them for what they really are. I'll start next years list: Winter Storm As#(*le. (I think you know what I'm going for there.)

Are you using the name Juno when talking about the Blizzard of 2015? Do you like that The Weather Channel names winter storms? Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.

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