Draco, Euclid, ... Freyr ..... Gandalf the White

What a hoot! Winter storms now being named. We've had Draco and Euclid, and it looks like Freyr could be forming:

Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton said a weather pattern with the potential to become Winter Storm Freyr is poised to enter the West Coast on Wednesday and move through the Rockies on Thursday. It could then head for the lower Mississippi Valley, then the Southeast and hit the Northeast on Sunday.

And today, 65 percent of the US is covered by snow. 

Between the widespread swaths of snow delivered by Winter Storm Draco and Winter Storm Euclid, the area covered by snow in the United States was up to 65 percent as of Thursday morning.

This is easily higher than the peak coverage we saw during last year's snow-starved winter, which was 47.7 percent on February 14, 2012.

As we head into the weekend, yet another storm system is taking shape that will likely deliver snow from the Ohio Valley to some of the major cities along the I-95 corridor of the Northeast. This storm could cause some headaches for the abundance of holiday travelers on roads and in the air this weekend.

Ah, yes, evidence of more global warming. Increased precipitation was predicted by global warming.

I've gotten back into my Tolkien phase (yet to see the new Hobbit movie) but I am re-reading Tom Shippey's biography of the 20th century's greatest author. I can hardly wait for Storm Gandalf. Folks might remember in The Lord of The Rings: Gandalf the Grey, and Gandalf the White.

By the way, back to Freyr:

Freyr (sometimes anglicized Frey, from *frawjaz "lord") is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, and was pictured as a phallic fertility god. Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals." Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house.

This god will be fun to explain to elementary school children. Especially that "sunshine and fair weather" part. Irony is a difficult concept for six-year-olds.