Weird weather words from North America

What’s in a name? Shakespeare once posed this rhetorical question, suggesting that a name is just a label and carries no inherent weight for the person it represents. However, when it comes to weather events, a name can carry tremendous significance.

In several European countries, significant winter storms are given names to emphasise the impacts they will bring. For example, Arwen in 2021 and Ciara in 2020 were associated with heavy rain, snow, and powerful winds. Éowyn in 2025 unleashed 100mph wind gusts (87 knots), causing widespread power outages, travel impacts, and sadly lives were lost. Éowyn ultimately became the UK’s most powerful windstorm in over a decade. These storm names are now synonymous with the destruction they caused.

Aside from human names, weather events are often given colloquial or descriptive names to help people understand what’s coming. In North America, some of these names are particularly colourful—but they often carry deep meaning for the local areas they affect.

You might hear someone say that a Bomb Cyclone Blizzard is approaching. Then, the following week, a Derecho might sweep through, followed by a Pineapple Express. Perhaps you’ve heard warnings of a Blue Norther ahead of a Panhandle Hooker. What in the world do these names mean?

Here are some of the more commonly used weather names in North America:

Blizzard

The title blizzard is often tossed around casually to describe a big snowstorm. But to officially qualify as a blizzard, a storm must meet the following criteria for three hours or longer: it must have sustained (constant) winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or higher, as well as falling or blowing snow that reduces visibility to under a quarter of a mile.

That means technically, even a minuscule amount of snow falling from the sky can qualify as a blizzard. The term blizzard primarily refers to the wind and poor visibility components rather than the volume of snowfall. So, you don’t need enough snow to bury a dog or a small child to call it a blizzard.

Bomb Cyclone

This term is used for a rapidly intensifying storm, referred to as explosive cyclogenesis in the UK. The intensification qualification is based on the storm’s central pressure, which is measured in millibars.

For a storm to receive the designation of bomb cyclone or bombogenesis, it must generally have a pressure drop of at least 24 millibars in 24 hours or less. Since these storms intensify so quickly, they can sometimes catch people off guard, bringing strong winds and heavy rain or snow that can lead to widespread travel disruptions.

Nor’easter

This type of storm impacts the northeastern coast of the United States—but that’s not where it gets its name. The only technical qualification for a Nor’easter is that the prevailing winds along the coast must be out of the northeast.

Most of these storms develop somewhere between Georgia and New Jersey, within 100 miles of the coast. As they progress northeastward, they generally achieve their maximum intensity near New England or the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

They are responsible for bringing heavy rain, snow, gale-force winds, rough seas and coastal erosion. While these storms can occur any time of year, they are most frequent—and at their most potent—between September and April.

Some of the more violent Nor’easters have caused billions of dollars in damage due to travel delays, widespread power outages, and disastrous coastal flooding.

Inland Runner

Also called a Coastal Runner, this is an area of low pressure that travels northeast along the Eastern Seaboard of the US and Canada, cutting through cities such as Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

These storms are very similar to Nor’easters, but the centre of the storm tends to track farther inland. As a result, instead of snow along the coast, the precipitation tends to remain as heavy rain, while interior New England and upstate New York—where the cold air is funnelled—often experience heavy snowfall.

Appalachian Runner

As the name implies, this is a low-pressure system that cuts through the southern Appalachian Mountains of Georgia and the Carolinas, then moves into the northern Appalachians of Pennsylvania and New York.

For Mid-Atlantic states such as Maryland, Washington, and Virginia, Appalachian Runners usually bring mostly rain, with occasional ice or sleet mixed in. In areas along the Ohio Valley, snow can pile up quickly.

Cold-air damming—where cold, dense air gets trapped against the mountain side—can also impact these storms.

This occurs when cold air is forced from the northeast against the Appalachian Mountains. The mountain range acts as a dam, keeping the cold air pooled like a lake. That shallow layer of cold air allows freezing temperatures to persist at the surface, even as warmer, moist air moves over it.

Great Lakes Cutter

These are storms that develop over the Plains and track and move northeast directly over the Great Lakes. This storm puts the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions on the warmer side of the system, bringing all rain.

The Midwest, however, will be the cooler side, and due to prevailing wind direction can often get some good lake-effect enhancement snow bands.

Much like in an Appalachian Runner, if cold-air damming is in place before the storm system hits, then a little front-end snow, ice or sleet may occur on the eastern side before transitioning into rain.

Alberta Clipper

These are fast-moving low-pressure systems that originate in the Canadian province of Alberta and move southeast into the United States.

These systems usually have strong winds, colder temperatures and snow — although snow totals don’t tend to be too high with these systems because of how fast they can zip through an area.

If this same system originates from a different Canadian province, it receives a different name, despite all sharing the same storm characteristics: Manitoba Mauler and Saskatchewan Screamer.

Derecho

A derecho is a fast-moving, long-lasting windstorm tied to a line of intense thunderstorms. These storms often form a bulge in the centre of the line (like a bow or parenthesis shape) and sweep across large areas, producing widespread damage.

Unlike tornadoes, which have rotating winds, derechos generate straight-line winds—meaning the destruction they leave behind occurs in a fairly uniform, one-directional path.

While the damage from a derecho can rival that of a tornado, it typically stretches over a much broader area. To qualify as a derecho, the swath of wind damage must extend more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometres) and include wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) along most of its length.

Because of this, you'll often hear the term straight-line wind damage used when describing the impacts of these powerful storms.

Atmospheric River

An atmospheric river is a long, narrow corridor of concentrated moisture that transports water vapor from the tropics to higher latitudes—essentially rivers in the sky—and can often unleash heavy rain or snow. 

Imagine it as a giant conveyor belt of moisture in the atmosphere. When it targets a specific area, it can result in relentless downpours or significant snowfall.

These systems typically span 250 to 375 miles wide but can sometimes extend over a thousand miles in length.

In the western United States, atmospheric rivers are responsible for 30% to 50% of the region’s yearly precipitation, making them a critical water source. However, while they play a key role in replenishing water supplies, they can also trigger flash floods, mudslides, and landslides, causing both destruction and loss of life.

“When atmospheric rivers move inland, they can create hurricane-like conditions, including intense rainfall, powerful winds, and dangerous coastal waves,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports.

Pineapple Express

In more general terms, the Pineapple Express is classified as an atmospheric river. Atmospheric rivers come in many shapes and sizes, but those that carry the most significant amounts of water vapor and strongest winds—like the Pineapple Express—can impact the entire West Coast of North America.

This name is given to a very specific series of storms that originate near the Hawaiian Islands. They travel along a very narrow corridor in the upper atmosphere of the Pacific Ocean and end up hitting along the West Coast.

It’s like aiming a fire hose of heavy rain and snow at the region, triggering flooding, mudslides, travel disruptions, and property damage.

Panhandle Hooker

These are winter storm systems that originate in the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains and hook toward the Midwest region.

It's given the name hooker because these storms hook from the southwest to the northeast as they travel from the panhandle region to the Midwest.

Thanks to the cold Arctic air to the north and warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico, these systems can swell quickly into giant winter beasts. For Chicago and other Midwestern cities, these storms bring quite impressive — sometimes historic — snowfall totals.

These storms can also be called Colorado Hookers when they originate in Colorado.

Blue Norther

As the famous quote says, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait a few minutes”.

A Blue Norther is a fast-advancing cold front that brings strong winds and a large drop in temperatures. 

That drop also happens suddenly, sometimes in less than 30 minutes.

These powerful cold fronts, originating from the Arctic regions of Canada, can rapidly descend across the western High Plains region of the US. The orientation of the Rocky Mountains often makes these fronts stronger and faster in this particular area. As northeasterly winds push the cold air against the mountains, it has no choice but to surge southward. This can cause temperature drops of 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) within mere minutes.

According to the National Weather Service, the term Blue Norther stems from the sudden shift to frigid northerly winds under clear blue skies. 

However, the exact origin of the phrase is unknown, as many other variants have been used in folklore including “blew-tailed norther” and “blue blizzard”, making it hard to understand what the term “blue” may have actually been referring to. 

One of the most famous Blue Northers happened in November of 1911 and impacted a large portion of the central US. 

“Temperature drops of 40 to 50 degrees [Fahrenheit] occurred within a few minutes, and several locations set record high temperatures and record low temperatures on the same day,” the National Weather Service office in Amarillo, Texas said. “In Oklahoma City the record high temperature of 83 degrees Fahrenheit occurred before the cold front came through and dropped temperatures to a record low of 17 degrees by midnight.  This is a 66-degree temperature swing!” 

Squall

In the UK, squally is often used to describe windy or blustery conditions, with a loose definition of a squall being a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed that lasts for at least a minute —typically linked to rain or thunderstorms.

But there is a specific definition in the United States, where a squall is defined as a sudden onset of strong wind that increases by at least 16 knots (18 mph) and is sustained at 22 knots (25 mph) or more for at least one minute. The term squall can also be used to describe snow. A snow squall is an intense but short period of moderate to heavy snowfall, reduced visibility, and strong gusty surface winds. With snow squalls, the snow accumulation is often significant.

Sleet

In the UK, we refer to a mix of rain and snow as sleet. But other countries, such as the United States, use the term sleet specifically to mean ice pellets. These form when snowflakes melt into rain and refreeze as they fall through colder air, resulting in small translucent balls of ice. They are similar-looking to hailstones, but form in a different way. Seet forms from rain/snow that freezes as it falls to the ground, but hail forms from rain that freezes as it goes UP in a thunderstorm thanks to strong updraughts. 

Sprinkles

A potentially confusing term is sprinkles. You might recognise sprinkles as a name for the colourful little toppings for cakes or ice cream (also known as hundreds and thousands in the UK). But in the United States, the word sprinkle also refers to very light rainfall. When sprinkles are in the forecast, it typically means the rain won’t accumulate to more than 3 mm.

About the author

Allison Chinchar is a meteorologist for CNN International, based in Atlanta.

She has covered everything from hurricanes, blizzards, flooding events, and wildfires, receiving an Emmy nomination for her coverage of Hurricane Dorian that hit the Bahamas in 2019. She also covered the Super Tornado Outbreak of April 2011 when over 350 tornadoes hit the Southeastern United States in just four days, with over 200 of those on April 27th alone. 

Chinchar graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from The Ohio State University. She is also a member of the American Meteorological Society, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the National Weather Association, and the International Association of Broadcast Meteorology.