Even Blizzards Are Human

Last October, an unusual early snowstorm crippled part of the nation. The photo above shows my northern sister with an old-fashioned two-handled saw. She and her husband had to use it to get rid of the tree that fell on their driveway. They had an electric chain saw, but no power. In fact, they had no power for eight days--an event my sister refers to as Snotober, but some folks called it Snowmaggeddon.

Hurricanes have been named for decades, but now blizzards will have names, too, according to USA Today. The Weather Channel will be using classic Greek or Roman names for this year's blizzards.

Yes, humans like to names things. They could simply attribute numbers to storms, but people have a crazy tendency to attribute human personalities to everything. There's a long word for this--anthropomorphize.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary it means:

: to attribute human form or personality to

: to attribute human form or personality to things not human

People give names to their computers, their boats and cars. Some people are rather creative when it comes to naming things. I love to go to the marina and read the names on boats. Some people are quite clever when it comes to creative license plates on their cars, too.

As an author, I name the imaginary people I invent for my stories--and I give them personalities, too. This is not so crazy when you look at the fact that meteorologists are now going to give blizzards names.

As the article in USA Today states, it could make for great headlines.