Thanks to the sharp folks at Mental Floss, we have our answer: It’s all part of a slick branding scheme by The Weather Channel. Last November, the channel announced its plan to name winter storms in order to “raise awareness”, “[make] it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress” on social media…and create hashtag alerts that all lead back to The Weather Channel’s own content.

Smart, you guys. Very smart. We love how TWC “reserved” classic names like Brutus, Iago, Gandolf* and Yogi for the 2012-13 storm crop. Someone has a sense of humor–but it’s not the good people at the National Weather Service, who are totally not on board with this whole “branding the storms” deal (because they can’t stand TWC getting all the attention).

RT @max_read: if you call this storm nemo you’re letting the weather channel win // They’ve already won.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 8, 2013

And here we figured it was all part of Disney’s plan to convince everyone in the Northeast to stay inside and re-watch Pixar movies this weekend…

*We’re not even Tolkein dorks and we knew that Gandalf’s name does NOT include an “o”. Come on!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Their jobs are especially important at a time like this: Hurricane Sandy is about to slam into New Jersey, and its aftermath won’t be pretty: Governor Chris Christie stopped begging Bruce Springsteen to hang out with him long enough to tell residents that they should prepare to go without power for 7-10 days, adding (with his trademark understatement), “Don’t be stupid, get out.”

OK, we get it: this is a big deal. The NWS knows that people don’t generally like to pack up and flee their homes, and we don’t doubt that some hard-headed New Jersey residents will stay put no matter what. Still, we wonder whether the tone of the service’s Sunday evening message was completely appropriate. Here’s the passage that raised some eyebrows (bold text ours, all caps theirs):

2. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT TO EVACUATE, AND YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO RODE OUT THE `62 STORM ON THE BARRIER ISLANDS, ASK THEM IF THEY COULD DO IT AGAIN.

3. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT, THINK ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES, THINK ABOUT THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WHO WILL BE UNABLE TO REACH YOU WHEN YOU MAKE THE PANICKED PHONE CALL TO BE RESCUED, THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE.

Well, that was certainly blunt. Since Buzzfeed won’t tell us whether we should be outraged by this insensitive gut punch, we’re stuck between freaking out and following New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s more measured suggestion:

“Sit back, have a sandwich from the fridge, watch television” – Mayor Bloomberg

— ben walsh (@BenDWalsh) October 29, 2012

We’ll get back to you when we figure it out.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.