Anecdotally, in the US we name tropical storms and hurricanes. There have been cases in the past where storms that were just as severe that did not originate in

Anecdotally, in the US we name tropical storms and hurricanes. There have been cases in the past where storms that were just as severe that did not originate in the Atlantic were never named and caused significant damage. There was a push several years ago by popular weather broadcast channels (that effectively re-package and re-sell National Weather Service data and forecasts) to begin naming winter storms in the same fashion as hurricanes. The NWS put out a strong warning to their own forecasters to NOT use those names in official materials. Then there is the trend by news media to replace “hurricane” with “Superstorm” when a storm causes a particularly high dollar amount of damage but may not have maintained hurricane force winds or simply because it hit a densely populated area. The definition of superstorm precludes any other named meteorological event such as a hurricane. But superstorm sounds better than hurricane.