Blizzards to be named by TWC?

USA Today announced today that The Weather Channel will now be naming blizzards and intense winter storms.  Hurricanes and tropical storms have been named since the late 1800's, and now blizzards will get the same recognition.

The Weather Channel says some major storms in the past have already received a few nicknames, such as snowmaggeddon, and it would be a bit easier to distinguish those storms if they had names.  They already have a list of 26 names for potential winter storms, starting with Athena, Brutus, and Caesar.  The names follow a Greek/Roman theme and there are no repeats of hurricane/tropical storm names. 

The names will be issued to winter storms that will have a big impact on large areas of population and the storms will only be named 3 days prior to the expected impact.  However The Weather Channel has not listed or described any criteria on how they will determine if it will be a major storm. The goal is to raise public awareness of the intensity of these big winter storms.