Create your own weather crisis
This has been the year for made-up words describing crazy weather phenomena, starting with Snowpocalypse, then Snowicane, and finally yesterday's Tornadogeddon. Welcome to Hypefest 2010.
As this article explains, the motivation for coining new weather words comes from the need for weather forecasters to drum up ratings, but also for the chance at 15 minutes of Internet fame.
Earlier this year, the National Weather Service criticized AccuWeather for using the term "Snowicane" to describe a snowstorm that vaguely resembled a tropical storm on satellite, if you squinted your eyes and looked at the animation just right. Back in my day (2008), we called these things "blizzards", an now-archaic term apparently not found in modern dictionaries.
What's next in the Wide World of Wacky Weather Words? The sky is the limit!
Since there's a chance of heavy rain in the forecast, we might be in store for Floodastrophe 2010. Or the Floodergency. Perhaps the Rainoclysm? Or better yet, the Great Destructoflood of Oh Ten. (Then again, maybe somebody in Nashville has already trademarked one of these terms.)
As a public service, we here at Weather Or Not have developed a new system that takes the guess work out of coining new weather-related, hype-enhanced, panic-inducing buzzwords. Simply choose a base word from Column A, add a suffix from Column B, and put the two together. In just seconds, you can create your own weather crisis!
Column A....... Column B
Flood -clysm
Hail -ageddon
Gust -burst
Wind -icane
Tornado -astrophe
Storm -alamity
Thunder -crisis
Drought -crash
Blizzard -panic
Rain -down
Snow -quake
Ice -surge
Freeze -matic
Heat -machine
Oil Spill -crunch
For extra dramatic effect, you can place your new word into one of these handy phrases:
Killer ... of 2010
The Great ... of 2010
The ... of 2010 Sponsored By Al Gore
The ... of the Century
Monster ... of the Millennium
The Tri-State ...
Billion Dollar ... of 2010
... of 2010 Caused By Global Warming Climate Change
The Perfect ...
Worst ... of a Lifetime
Here are some examples:
The Tornadoclysm of 2010
Killer Stormastrophe of 2010
The Tri-State Hailamity
The Blizzardgeddon of '79
The Great Droughticane of 2010 (well, they can't all be winners)
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