FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

“Small,” unorganized storm wasn't named for Trump, agency swears

“I guarantee you that it has no connection to Donald Trump,” Max Mayfield, the former director of the center, told the Associated Press.

The National Hurricane Center had to take time from a busy morning doing, you know, science stuff to reassure people that no, recently formed Tropical Storm Don was not named after the president.

“I guarantee you that it has no connection to Donald Trump,” Max Mayfield, the former director of the center, told the Associated Press. A National Hurricane Center spokesperson also confirmed to the AP that the choice had nothing to do with politics.

Advertisement

The National Hurricane Center warned the public Monday afternoon about a “small” and “not particularly well-organized” storm forming near Barbados in the Atlantic Ocean. Its name? Don.

Twitter wasted no time turning the development into a big, political joke.

But if anyone did think the storm’s name was a dig at Trump, perhaps we can forgive them: The president’s proposed 2018 budget featured over $130 million in cuts to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association, which runs the National Hurricane Center. And even though we’re a month and a half into hurricane season, Trump still hasn’t named a director for the association.

Mayfield was the one who, in 2006, added Don to the rotating collection of potential storm names that international scientists maintain. And long before the president took office, 2011 also had a Tropical Storm Don.

Nonexistent naming controversy aside, the storm isn’t expected to cause much damage. Caribbean Islands like Grenada and St. Vincent have tropical storm warnings out, but scientists report the whole affair should be done after about 72 hours.

Trump isn’t even the first president to have his very own weather phenomenon. Hurricane Bill caused some flooding and power outages in Bermuda while Bill Clinton was in the Oval Office in 1997.