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Nemo Blizzard Bears Down On Northeast, Twitter Users Share Plans

By Kim LaCapria
Published on: 02:30 PST, Feb 8, 2013

As the “Nemo blizzard” bears down on parts of the Northeast, the storm — predicted to be potentially quite intense — has users in equal measures nervous, amused, and plotting Nor’easter drink fests on social media sites.

The Nemo blizzard is just the latest weather event to invite a social media frenzy of storm prep — half practical measures like monitoring potential gas shortages and reminding friends to stock up on essentials, half quipping about parties and Instagraming mobbed liquor stores as folk plan for blizzard bacchanalia.

But the Nemo blizzard moniker has a point, CS Monitor insists, explaining the rationale of bestowing a name upon such events:

  • Naming a storm raises awareness.
  • Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress.
  • A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
  • In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
  • A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future.

The Atlantic collected some of the web’s Nemo blizzard reactions, with Twitter users joking about the media’s frenzied response to the latest “worst storm ever” headed right for your house.

The Nemo blizzard response is also in part reaction to the new ways people receive disaster prep information, with text messages from services imparting a somewhat zombie apocalypse feel to the whole thing.

The site quotes a few tweets about such instances, noting the tone of the Nemo blizzard watch in media and issuing forth from weather reporting services to be particularly grave and alarming:

Here in New York, the much feared Nemo blizzard is thus far like a melted Slurpee falling from the sky — have you set about gearing up for snowpocalypse just yet, or are you skeptical the area will be hit hard again so soon after Sandy?

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