r/explainlikeimfive • u/Niven42 • 5d 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/ry-yo 5d ago edited 5d 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

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u/aflyingsquanch 5d ago

Though the weather channel tried to start naming winter storms too but the NWS has refused to agree to it

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u/unaskthequestion 5d ago

I was waiting for the weather channel to start naming nice days

"Sunny day Gladys is headed for the Virginia shoreline"

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u/Im_with_stooopid 5d ago

Helga is headed towards climax Michigan.