Choosing a name for storm was no breeze

It was with a palpable sigh of relief that the National Weather Service announced Friday that Clyde Hill, 44, of Burien, was the winner of its "Name the Wind Storm" contest.

Now the agency can get back to predicting the weather.

Fun projects have a way of becoming very complicated, very fast, especially when 6,255 e-mails are received.

"Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006" was Hill's winning entry in officially naming the storm that hit Puget Sound on Dec. 14 and 15, leaving 1.5 million people without electricity.

By the time the contest was over, meteorologists had spent some 100 hours compiling and discussing the entries, often taking them home.

"We underestimated how much interest there'd be in the contest," said Brad Colman, meteorologist in charge of the weather service's Seattle office. All those e-mails had to be laboriously put into an Excel spreadsheet.

And then there was the bemused reaction from those familiar with Judaism about the winning entry.

Last year, Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday that begins in late November or in December, started at sunset Dec. 15.

One scholar said the prior 24 hours aren't really considered part of the holiday, although Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, with the Jewish outreach organization Panim Hadashot, said the Hebrew word for "eve" — "erev" — can have multiple meanings, including the day before.

He took it all in good humor: "You don't expect a storm to be named after a Jewish holiday in America."

At a ceremony Friday, Hill, a business-systems analyst, was given a plaque.

Actually, 38 other entries also had suggested the winning name, but his was chosen in a random drawing.

Hill said that when he phoned home after being told the news Monday — and asked to keep quiet about it until the official announcement — his two daughters asked, "Did we win a million dollars? Did we win a trip?"

He said his wife, Julie Hill, had to explain to the children, "It's an honor." Hill said he might put up the plaque at his cubicle at work.

He said that when the contest was announced Dec. 21, he went to his computer, logged onto Google and searched for holidays on Dec. 14 and 15. Immediately, "Hanukkah" popped up.

Hill, just like the weather service, wanted to name the storm after something of significance and not joke about it, given the property damage and 14 deaths it caused.

Still, the weather service was inundated with plenty of entries that took a droll approach to the storm:

Firewood for the Next 10 Years Storm. Overtime for Utility Workers Storm. I Can't Find My Inflatable Santa Storm. Chainsaw Massacre. Bouillabaisse Day Storm. Blowzilla. I Hate My Neighbor Because He Has Power Storm. Why I Lived in Southern California Storm. Party's Canceled Storm. Stephen T. Colbert Wind Storm of Truthiness. When the Evergreens Got Mad Storm. It Wasn't Such a Wonderful Life Storm. Incompetent Utilities Storm. There's No Place Like a Dark Home for the Holidays Storm. Lawn Chair Launcher Storm. Kiss Your 80-Year-Old Tree Goodbye Storm. Douglas Firs Are Shallowly Rooted Storm. Columbian Blow. Hey, Buddy, Can You Spare a Presto Log Storm. A Sliver of Armageddon. Chief Sealth's Revenge.

One man sent in this explanation of his choice:

"It was a 'gloomy dark' you weren't even sure you'd ever get out of, it was bitterly cold ... there was a constant piercing shrieking sound that made your head feel like shards of broken glass were being driven into it, by the end it had cost an enormous amount of money, and it had sucked all the energy out of thousands of people...

"So, I say we name it Lori, after my ex-wife!!!"

In the 6,255 e-mails, including entries from Canada, England and Australia, nearly 8,000 names were suggested, with some names or their variations getting numerous nominations:

The Big Blow; something with the word Grinch in it; Lights Out Storm; the Ides of December Storm; something with the name Nostradamus (it was his birthday); many with the word Seahawks; Holiday Storm of 2006; Gone With the Wind Storm; many with "Christmas Storm" in them.

At first, three weather-service staffers began itemizing the entries.

Soon, said Colman, it became obvious the agency was getting overwhelmed. Eventually, a dozen staffers and two student volunteers were helping out.

The list of possible winners was whittled down to 18, with "The Great Storm of 2006," "Mid-December Blast" and "The Blackout Storm" getting particular attention.

But "Hanukkah Eve Wind Storm of 2006" was compelling, said Colman, because it's an important symbol, and because it's a festival of lights.

"That was the most convincing point, the use of candles," he said, "And here we had 1.5 million people without power, using candles."

As for a contest for some future big storm, Colman said that next time, e-mails could have only one entry, and the name would have to be typed in the subject line so the e-mail wouldn't need to be opened.

Still, 6,000-plus e-mails is 6,000-plus e-mails.

"The next time," said Colman, "we'd do it very carefully."

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com