#StormHelen: Twitter names Cape Town’s storm after Helen Zille

helen zille #stormhelen cape town twitter the democratic alliance flickr

It’s common practice for the United States’ National Hurricane Centre to give storms common names, but not cold fronts. Cape Town seems to think that this should change.

As Wednesday’s #MotherOfAllStorms draws ever closer towards South Africa, Cape Town believes that the weather system should be named after the premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille.

After the above tweet was posted, #StormHelen began trending across South Africa around 4pm Tuesday, just as the first clouds began to appear on the city’s horizon.

#StormHelen is what some users on Twitter want to name Cape Town’s winter storm

The below tweet started it all, receiving around 60 retweets and just under 100 likes in two hours.

And as Twitter does so often, the hashtag began to spread.

For those wondering, no, the storm is not officially named Storm Helen. But try telling Twitter that.

Additionally, the last recorded named storm to lash South Africa was Tropical Cyclone Dineo, which hit Limpopo in February.

Cape Town’s winter storm coverage:

Alerts ring across Twitter as Cape Town’s Wednesday storm bears closer
Track Cape Town’s storm in realtime with these 3 free resources

The name “Helen” has however been used to name tropical storms in the past. The name was used in both 2008 and 2013 for cyclones that struck Darwin, Australia, and the eastern coastline of India respectively.

Feature image: The Democratic Alliance via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY-SA, resized)

Andy Walker, former editor
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