FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 3, 2014
ATLANTA – In response to the study just released from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes” (2014) doi: 10.1073/pnas.1402786111 , which suggested that female named storms don’t elicit enough alarm in the general populace, resulting in lower evacuation numbers, and in keeping with the practice that TWC pioneered of naming winter storms, TWC has decided to rename Northern Hemisphere tropical storms this year, using names taken from monsters and mythology.
The study found that for highly damaging storms, the more feminine the storm’s name, the more people it killed. The team’s analysis suggests that changing a severe hurricane’s name from the masculine “Charley” to the feminine “Eloise” could nearly triple its death toll.
The authors of the PNAS study said in their press release on the paper:
“In judging the intensity of a storm, people appear to be applying their beliefs about how men and women behave,” said Sharon Shavitt, a professor of marketing at Illinois and a co-author of the report. “This makes a female-named hurricane, especially one with a very feminine name such as Belle or Cindy, seem gentler and less violent.”
“If people in the path of a severe storm are judging the risk based on the storm’s name, then this is potentially very dangerous.”
Therefore, in the interest of public safety, TWC has decided to take the initiative and apply new names that will elicit action on the part of TWC viewers.
TWC spokesperson Tiffany Bleuhard said “While many people feel they can ride out storms, as we’ve seen from actual TWC operations in the field, the only people qualified to ride out hurricanes, tropical storms, and tornadoes are trained meteorologists. Our goal is to make sure that they take these storms seriously enough to heed official warnings. We feel that by giving the storms names that are appropriate to their intensity and risk, people will take them more seriously and let the experts do their jobs.”
The alphabetical list of TWC named storms for 2014 follows.
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TWC 2014 NAMES OF TROPICAL STORMS (with sources and translations)
Abe Sapien (Hellboy)
Beisht Kione (Irish Mythology – “The Beast With a Black Head.“)
Cyclops (one eyed monster)
Dhampir (Serbian vampire)
Ekimmu (Mesopotamian A bloodsucking ghost that resembles a pale giant with a bull’s head on its shoulders.)
Futakuchi-onna (Japanese – Woman with a second mouth on the back of her head)
Godzilla (TWC received special license for this name in exchange for promoting the movie)
Hippogriff (Renaissance invention in Orlando Furioso)
Ichthyocentaur (sea-Centaur)
Jersey Devil (Demonic dragon that was given birth to by an American living in New Jersey)
Kasha (Japanese – Cat-like demon which descends from the sky and carries away corpses)
Leviathan (Jewish – Sea monster, as seen in Job 41)
Muldjewangk (Australian Aboriginal mythology – Water monster)
Nukekubi (Japanese – Disembodied, flying head that attacks people)
Ogre (Medieval folklore – Large, grotesque humanoid)
Pollo Maligno (Colombian – Man-eating chicken spirit)
Qalupalik (Inuit mythology – Aquatic human abductor)
Rồng – (Vietnamese – Dragon)
Shen (Chinese – Shapeshifing sea monster)
Toire-no-Hanakosan (Japanese – Ghost who lurks in grade school restroom stalls)
Unktehila (Lakota – Reptilian water monster)
Vântoase (Romanian – Female bad weather spirit)
Wanyūdō (Japanese – Demon in the form of a burning ox cart with a human head)
Xing Tian (Chinese – Headless giant)
Yamata no Orochi (Japanese – Gigantic, eight-headed serpent)
Zennyo Ryūō (Japanese – Rain-making dragon)
For those who have not noticed yet, it is clearly labeled below: “This entry was posted in Humor, Satire, The Weather Channel. ”
It is entirely a satirical fabrication, but as some have noted in comments, , it’s also plausible.
How do you confuse the issue? Name it Alex- they won’t know whether they’re Arthur or Martha
Pollo? A chicken storm? Scary.
Some one put a Dhampir on that storm.
I need an anatomy lesson: how can they tell a female hurricane from a male hurricane?
Tell me this is a joke.
I’m with Hoser — use the last names of politicians. That should be scary enough for anyone.
So, here is the question…is it possible to come up with something about climate change that is soooo absolutely ridiculous that everyone knows that it must be sarcasm?
Apparently not
First as farce …
Hurricane Koch, Tornado Halliburton, Storm Surge Steyn.
All those female hurricanes are getting together with all those male hurricanes and producing more hurricanes. We didn’t have that problem until there were both types.
Gamera is the friend to all children.
SIGINT EX says:
June 3, 2014 at 8:24 pm
I much preferred calling the typhoons by number, as it seemed more accurate and scientific than the USA preference of human names, mostly girls names for some reason only known by NOAA.
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/B1.html
In 2000 JMA started preferentially using human hames, like USA, for typhoons instead of numbers.
No, the practice in the WPac is to use an international list of terms contributed by all
Pacific nations. Not all are human names, many are words for flowers, foods, or chickens :
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/B2.html
Satirizing The Weather Channel is like satirizing The Daily Show or SNL’s Weekend Update. All three are already satires, although many people (Including Jon Stewart) do not know that.
re Anthony’s comment: “For those who have not noticed yet, it is clearly labeled “This entry was posted in Humor, Satire, The Weather Channel. ”
“It is entirely a satirical fabrication, but as some have noted, it’s also plausible.”
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That is not clear where Humor and Satire are noted. When viewing the home screen view and scrolling down to the article, do not see any reference to satire.
We need to be better than this. The satire is fine. But, individuals who don’t see any notification that it is satire may not trust info from this site. This site has too high of a reputation to not bend over backwards to not put out false information. April Fools Day would be the exception.
Do not even see a disclaimer anywhere in the story. Not a good thing, imo.
Enjoy the satire. But don’t like the lack of clear disclosure.
Yes, but wil they be female monsters or male monsters?
What about hurricane ‘boo boo bear’ or hurricane ‘tweety pie’ ?
I dont necessarily agree with the premise of the study, nor the findings. It seems counter intuitive.
EVERYONE knows that Mother Nature (aka Gaia) can be a Royal “B” AND that MANkind has been – according to the Greeny Crowd – “raping and defiling” her for some time now AND Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned… so, calling these storms by a female name is accurate and SHOULD be scary as all get-out.
I mean, imagine “Hurricane/Cyclone/Typhoon Lorena Bobbit/Lizzy Borden” forecast to make landfall at a location near you. I dont know about you, but I would not wait around to see what damage she could do!
The History Channel could keep them stocked up on fresh monster names! …Hurricane Wampus Beast is expected to make landfall this Saturday…and in related news thousands of confused Hillbillies showed up on the beach in droves proclaiming that they were going to catch the Wampus Beast once and for all. Okay, this could backfire.
“It is entirely a satirical fabrication, but as some have noted in comments, , it’s also plausible.”
And that’s the truly scary thing…
Was discouraged to note that Kracken didn’t make the list!
All right. On the one hand this seem like plain warmist propoganda. On the other I for one am really looking forword to hearing an actual TV news reporter telling us ” OH NO! GODZILLA IS COMING ASHORE AND WILL DISTROY THE CITY!”
TimB said in part on June 3, 2014 at 2:31 pm:
“Katrina kinda biases it a bit. And of course, male names are recent. Kinda stands to reason if Galveston hurricane and New Orleans hurricane were female names, nothing else matters.”
I think I need to see the study and its methodology, and see if excluding Katrina removes the trend of female storms being more dangerous. Or, if the study includes years when all Atlantic tropical cyclones were female, and weather prediction technology was not as good as it is now. I would be surprised if the public takes female storms less seriously than male ones. My impression is that the public pays attention to hurricanes, and pays attention to them.
Followup by me: drroyspencer.com mentions the study, and says that outlier storms such as Katrina were excluded from the study.
@ur momisugly Rick Werme
“No Jabberwock? Aww. Whine. Okay, so Tenniel drew him with a vest.”
Ahem! He’s British. Tenniel drew him with a waistcoat.
But people still won’t be afraid enough of Cookie and Pikachu.
Missed out the biggest monster of all.
The EPA monster?