Winter storm naming in the United States

Winter storm naming in the United States has been used sporadically since the mid-1700s in various ways to describe historical winter storms. These names have been coined using schemes such as the days of the year that the storm impacted or noteworthy structures that the storm had damaged and/or destroyed. In the 2010s, winter storm naming became controversial with The Weather Channel coming up with its own list of names for winter storms similar to that of hurricanes.

The marketing and hype of weather became a big part of media revenue by the 1990s (see Weather media in the United States). The Weather Channel critcs contend that the naming of winter storms was a way to hype winter weather on the upper East Coast, however, the region on average sees less snow than many areas of the USA, but has the largest media market. Most government and research meteorologists argue that winter storms can reform more than once, making the process of naming them both difficult and redundant. The United States National Weather Service (NWS) has refrained from commenting on the system and stated that they do not name winter storms.