Pat Shingleton for Nov. 8, 2012

My column on Oct. 6 noted the Weather Channel’s initiative to identify winter storms similar to the naming of tropical storms. Their A to Z list includes Greek names depicting wisdom, courage and math and their identification of Wednesday’s first winter storm of the season prompted the National Weather Service to issue a directive. There appears to be no criteria for the channel’s naming of winter storms, in contrast to a governing body established for tropical storms. The designation appears to be arbitrary by some experts. For example, a Central Plains storm may not meet the criteria of a Great Lakes storm. On Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service alerted all of its field offices to not identify the nor’easter as “Athena,” which was named by The Weather Channel. Fastcast: Nippy.