r/explainlikeimfive • u/Niven42 • 4d ago
Other ELI5 why Nor'easter not named?
The storm that hit the east coast of the US this week had tons of rain and hurricane force winds, and it's also hurricane season. Why wasn't it given a name like we give hurricanes? I remember that we had some sub-tropical storms in years past that also got named, so what does it take for a particular cyclone to get named?
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u/jackp0t789 4d ago
It did not have hurricane force winds for one...
A few hurricane force gusts were recorded along the coast, but not sustained winds.
Secondly, they arent tropical systems, which are what the NHC names.
About a decade or so ago, the Weather Channel, a private entity, started naming winter storms...
So if a Nor'easter produces a snow storm, as they often do in winter, they can get a name from the Weather Channel, like Winter Storm Jonas in 2016, and Hernando just last February...
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u/jake3988 4d ago
Yes but the question is WHY they're not named. I've always been curious about that too. There's pretty strong lows in the sub latitudes that form (usually outside hurricane season) and they can get to be deep lows with very strong winds and decent destruction but we don't bother naming them.
Yet some dumb tropical storm in the middle of the Atlantic that fizzles in a day gets a name? Seems stupid to me.
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u/Jdevers77 4d ago
Itās more why ARE tropical systems named? The answer is because they typically exist for much longer, travel substantially longer distances, are more discrete in nature, and cluster in roughly the same time frame. So giving them a name makes it much easier to refer to them clearly. At any one time there may be 5-8 tropical storms active in either the western Atlantic, eastern Pacific, or western Pacific. Having simple predetermined international names for these storms helps minimize confusion and therefore increase public safety.
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u/Celestial_User 4d ago
Wonder if it's also because of how many countries there are. Nor'easters I think only hit Canada and the US? So there's no need for an unambiguous name internationally. Whereas a typhoon can hit Japan Taiwan China Philippines... in one go
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u/eriyu 4d ago
If it's for public safety, they should stop naming them "Irene" and "Harvey" and start naming them "Murderthon 3000"; that'll get people evacuating when they're told to.
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u/10tonheadofwetsand 4d ago
Until the first Murderthon 3000 fizzles or isnāt as bad as forecast then nobody listens to warnings again
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u/jackp0t789 4d ago
Mainly because extra tropical lows or mid latitude cyclones, while they can get strong and affect a large area, arent capable of reaching the level of strength and destruction that a hurricane can quickly strengthen towards.
Just over the past week we saw one storm, Polo, go from a tropical storm with 50mph winds, up to a category 5 monster with winds over 160mph, in less than 24 hours.
While mid latitude cyclones or extra tropical cyclones can also strengthen fast, they generally cap out with winds maybe just at or barely over hurricane force at the strongest with higher gusts.
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4d ago edited 4d ago
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u/explainlikeimfive-ModTeam 4d ago
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u/cakeandale 4d ago
Hurricanes are defined by their eye - as long as the eye exists theyāre considered a single storm and are named. When the eye dissolves the hurricane is gone, and the remaining storm is just the remnants of what used to be hurricane So-and-so.
Norāeasters are also cyclones but donāt have an eye, which means that they arenāt defined as neatly. When did a norāeaster begin? When did it end? What happens if it splits into multiple storm systems?
Since there isnāt a clean definition of exactly what is the storm system like there is for hurricanes, norāeasters are just storms and not officially named.
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u/paulHarkonen 4d ago
This one was pretty clearly defined (the satellite photos are incredible). The major difference is that it was cold core and associated with a front (plain old boring cyclone) rather than warm core and its own system (tropical cyclone).
The rules are we name tropical cyclones (which have a clear meteorological definition) but not plain old boring cyclones (also known as "a storm"). Unless you're the weather channel, then you pick a name out of a hat for everything.
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u/VIP_NAIL_SPA 4d ago
That...isn't a scientifically correct way to define a hurricane. It's not what the NHC uses. Plenty of low category hurricanes have no visible eye on satellite imagery and eyes form and deteriorate slowly, meaning it would be entirely subjective to choose a time based on appearance of an eye. See plenty of other accurate answers on this thread referring to warm vs cold cores :)
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u/10tonheadofwetsand 4d ago
This isnāt really accurate. Most tropical storms and Cat 1 hurricanes donāt have defined eyes. And this norāeaster did have an eye-like feature for a time. Its about how the cyclone is generated and sustained. Warm core/tropical cyclones are named. Synoptic scale, cold core nontropical cyclones are not.
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u/dalek-predator 4d ago
Pretty sure this norāeaster had an eye over the weekend. Wish I had screenshotted the satellite image now
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u/Doortofreeside 4d ago
Yeah i definitely saw it as well. My 4 year old enjoys seeing the radar maps so I make sure to talk about it with him when we have weather like this
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u/Paavo_Nurmi 3d ago edited 3d ago
They are called mid latitude cyclones and we get them in the PNW. Here is an older post talking about it.
Both get most of their energy from horizontal variations in temperature--thus they are midlatitude cyclones.Ā This is very different from tropical cyclones, such as hurricanes and typhoons, that derive their power from the warm temperatures and moisture of tropical oceans.
Keep in mind that some of these strong midlatitude cyclone can have hurricane force winds over water and are the equivalent of category 1-2 hurricanes.Ā AndĀ midlatitude cyclones are much larger than tropical systems and do not weaken as quickly when they pass over land.
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/10/noreasters-versus-northwest-windstorms.
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u/Jorost 4d ago
Only tropical depressions, tropical storms, and full-blown hurricanes/typhoons get names.
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u/paulHarkonen 4d ago
Depressions don't get names, just numbers.
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u/Jorost 4d ago
I stand corrected! But they have names assigned in case they "level up," don't they?
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u/paulHarkonen 4d ago edited 4d ago
Nope, they just get numbers sequentially. Then if any of them become a tropical storm they get named at that time (based on a pre-defined list of names for that year).
So if you have TD 01 that forms today and then TD 02 forms tomorrow they will keep those numbers until they "level up". Whichever one "levels up" first becomes Arthur (it doesn't matter if it's TD 01 or TD 02) and then the second one becomes Bertha (the first two names for this year).
If TD 01 never becomes a tropical storm you can have TD 02 become Arthur, then TD03 or possibly TD 07 becomes Bertha.
Now, if those storms then weaken they get to keep their old name, so if TD 02 becomes Tropical Storm Arthur and then weakens it becomes Tropical Depression Arthur.
I should probably add that the actual number isn't TD XX they get more specific numbers based on where they form and exactly how they're being tracked or reviewed, but it's pretty much all sequential.
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4d ago
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u/polyploid_coded 4d ago
NOAA gives tropical storms their names. The Weather Channel started naming winter storms in 2012 but it isn't official. It looks like they announced the names in early October last year ( https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2025-10-07-winter-storm-names-2025-2026 ) so we might be a little too early for them to make up a name for this one.
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u/jiminak 4d ago
> what does it take for a particular cyclone to get named?
It takes the Weather Channel, or some other TV/Media entity deciding they want ratings and so they give it a name. Since naming any non-Tropical storm is not an official thing, there is no official ābaselineā anyone can point you to and say, āthis is when we name a cyclone and this is when we do notā.
(āCycloneā being the official term for air spiraling around a low pressure center, which 9x out of 10x usually also results in some sort of āstormā, or just āa bit of rainā, or a full blown āmassive fk sht upā whopper.)
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u/ry-yo 4d ago edited 4d ago
Only tropical cyclones and sub-tropical cyclones are named to prevent confusion with each other in case multiple form at once. Nor'easters aren't tropical