Stephen Colbert made a big announcement on Late Show: The Weather Channel will name the third winter storm of 2017-18: Winter Storm Colbert.
This week, Colbert had mocked Weather Channel for naming this most recent storm Winter Storm Stella, because, he noted, they are not a government organization and do not have authority to name storms. On Late Show, he had renamed Stella Winter: Storm Crazy Balls.
Weather Channel, turns out, has a sense of humor, Colbert said.
Or, marketing savvy.
“It’s impossible to say exactly how Winter Storm Colbert will perform next winter,” Weather Channel announced this morning.
“But the network has been beta-testing experimental forecasting technology and, very early forecasts indicate it will be a storm that starts small. It may make a few false starts before the system moves on towards New York and becomes a major storm – oddly similar to Stephen Colbert’s own career.”
This is the sixth year the network has named winter storms, which it insists it does, not as a marketing ploy to improve ratings, but “in order to simplify and expedite communications to residents in the storms’ paths.”
The official criteria for storm names are based on The National Weather Service issuing specific storm warnings, a population of 2 million and/or an aerial coverage of at least 400,000 sq. km. (about the size of Montana).
Here is Weather Channel’s announcement:
