Hey Jude!

It was a dark and stormy night...ahem, sorry, could not resist.  The St. Jude storm, so named because Monday was the feast of St. Jude Thaddaeus, hammered my humble abode all through the night and then swept its way up to Denmark. The storm  caused massive transportation delays and cancellations and wind gusts up to 100 miles per hour. And more importantly, it ripped my fence apart in our back garden. The fact that St. Jude is the patron of lost causes is not lost on me. I hope my fence can be fixed.

Why name a storm after St. Jude?   Monday was also the feast day for St. Anastasia II, St. Ferrutius, St. Honoratus of Vercelli and ten or twelve more. The obvious reason is that St. Jude is much easier to pronounce. Surely, though, that could not be the only reason. In fact, storms in the U.K. don't usually get named at all. The  tradition of naming storms seems to come from my side of the pond. The explanation given for naming storms is that a named storm aides in ease of disseminating crucial advisories and warnings. Right.

In the US, storms have been named since the 1950's. At first, those rascally masters of meteorology used female names only. Whilst a part of me does understand the practice as  I have raised two daughters, I can also totally understand why feminist groups took exception to the practice and forced the weather services to include male names.  Some of the names are quite memorable. We can all with ease remember Hurricanes Andrew, Hugo, Katrina and Sandy. I also remember hearing about Hurricane Camille, although I was too young to fully comprehend how some chick with an odd name could devastate the entire Eastern Seaboard.

The National Weather Service has apparently exhausted its stash of reasonable, easy to remember and/or spell names. This year we have Rebekah, Humberto, Nestor, and Chantal among others. Really? While I concede that Hurricane Joe doesn't quite have the oomph one would expect as a moniker for a destructive storm, Nestor does? And besides, if the weather service wants really inventive, creative and memorable names for a storm, go ask a teacher.  My sister taught Crystal Sparkle Chandelier one year. I kid you not.

Maybe in the end naming the storm after a saint is a good thing. I would think it would be harder to say the words our mothers admonished us not to when referring to a saint. I saw not a single piece of plywood  with St. Jude go home! or similar as is the norm in the States. Folks thought it appropriate that we would have a patron saint to help us through the loss of life and property. Maybe they have it right here. I guess we should all be grateful it was not the feast day of St. Quadragesimus....