Question: What is the official name of the winter storm that blanketed the state over the weekend?
Answer: The National Weather Service doesn’t assign official names to winter storms, although The Weather Channel began the practice in 2012 and has designated last weekend’s storm “Fern.”
Meteorologists employed by other news organizations have resisted assigning names to winter storms because their impact is varied and widespread, and they claim The Weather Channel’s criteria for doing so are poorly defined. Houston meteorologist Mike Iscovitz recently weighed in on the subject on Instagram, posting, “Bottom line: it’s not a thing!”
