Winter storm names: No Rocky 2?!

We're disappointed.

Last year, when the Weather Channel presumed to start naming winter storms, without any National Weather Service thumbs-up, one of the storms was named Rocky.

This year, we were hoping for Rocky 2.

But fuggedaboutit when it comes to any Philly faves. The new list, just out, is high on mythology, as it ranges from Atlas (sky-shouldering god) and Boreas (Greek god of the north wind) to Zephyr (god of the west wind).

No way we're going to count Yona as Philly, just for having "Yo." Yona was "a word used in ancient India to designate a Greek person" because of some alphabet confusion, weather.com explains. Nothing

Some happen to also resemble common names, even sports figures and celebrities, with the likes of Cleon, Dion, Electra, Falco, Leon and Rex.

The weirdest choice by far is Pax, explained by weather.com as "the Latin word for 'peace.' " Odd designation for a potential disaster.

Can't wait for the headlines like "Pax a Wallop" and "Snow Pax" or "Ice Pax."

Ion will also provide its share of wordplay with headlines like "Eye on Ion."

"The naming program last year was a huge success, with well over a billion impressions on Twitter and regular use by numerous schools, agencies and media outlets," said the Weather Channel's list compiler, Bryan Norcross, who consulted with a high school Latin class in Montana.

No wonder our prediction from last year failed to come true. After noting all sorts of names that resonated in pop culture, such as Draco and Luna (characters in Harry Potter books), Nemo (Pixar star), Q (Star Trek and James Bond sagas), and Yogi (Bear and Berra), we forecast this year we'd see the likes of Adele, SpongeBob and Wolverine.

We hope next year they consult a Philadelphia middle school gym class.

See the full list at weather.com. 

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.