At a Glance

Winter storms are named by The Weather Channel for systems meeting strict criteria.There were 20 named storms last winter, including one in May.

The 2022-23 season is the 11th season The Weather Channel is naming winter storms.

The names below will be used in alphabetical order to identify winter storms that meet objective naming criteria based on National Weather Service warnings, or the expectation that a sufficient amount of warnings will eventually be issued.

To be named, a winter storm has to meet, or eventually meet, at least one of the following criteria:

- NWSwinter storm, blizzard, or ice storm warnings covering a population of at least 2 million.

-NWS winter storm, blizzard, or ice storm warnings covering at least an area of 400,000 square kilometers, or slightly larger than the state of Montana.

Example of a named winter storm - Winter Storm Xylia - as shown by accumulated snowfall from the West to the upper Midwest in March 2021.

Storms forecast to trigger NWS warnings over a much larger population and/or area, such as February 2021's in the West, South and Northeast,are typically named well ahead of time.

Lake-effect snowstorms are not named, and any warnings covering lake-effect snow are not counted for consideration for naming a winter storm.

Winter storm names excludeany current Atlantic and eastern Pacific hurricane names on the for the next six years, and any (those particularly deadly, destructive and historic).

The was the first of its kind to be developed by The Weather Channel.

Consistent Tally Of Storms

Using these criteria, the number of named winter storms has been fairly consistent, ranging from a maximum of 26 storms in to only 19 storms in 2019-20 because of a in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest.

(AMS BLOG: It's Time For Weather Community Cooperation On Naming Winter Storms)

There were 20 named winter storms last season, beginning with Atticus in the second week of December and ending with Tad in the third week of May.

The Season Has Already Begun

Over the past 10 seasons, the first winter storm has been namedas early as the first few days of October to as late as early December 2021.

Two named storms formed each of the previous two Octobers (2019 and 2020).

In October 2020, Winter Storm Abigail was the heaviest snowstorm so early in the fall in both Minneapolis-St. Paul and St. Cloud, Minnesota. That was followed about a week later by Winter Storm Billy, the earliest ice storm on record in Oklahoma.

The season's final winter storm has been named anywhere from mid-March throughmid-May.

The 2020-21 season's final storm was the earliest on record after pummeled the High Plains with feet of snow in mid-March 2021.

Winter storms have most often reached naming criteria from the latter half of January through February.

The number of named winter storms, by month, from 2013 through spring 2022. February is the peak month for winter storms.

(Graph: Infogram)

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