Names of Severe Winter Storms That Could Hit Idaho 2025-2026

Typically, when you think about named storms you’re thinking about hurricanes and tropical storms. These types of weather events don’t occur in Idaho and it’s fairly rare that remnants of Pacific hurricanes affect the Gem State.

That’s not saying that it’s not impossible. Back in 2023, the remnants of Hurricane Hilary reached the Boise area leading to localized flooding and a record for the highest amount of moisture observed in the atmosphere in our area. 47 years before that, remnants of Hurricane Kathleen drenched Boise with 1.74 inches of rain.

Now winter storms? That’s a different story. Idaho’s got a long history of those. What the Gem State doesn’t have is a record of creative names for those weather makers. Any time there’s enough snow to close schools and disrupt traffic, people call it “Snowpocalypse” or “Snowmageddon.”

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Sometimes, they’ll add a 2.0 to it to distinguish it from the unforgettable 39.1” of snowfall the Treasure Valley got during that miserable winter of 2016-2017. In fact, the Idaho Statesman did publish the name “Snowmageddon 2024” when writing about the storm that dumped 15.9” of snow on Boise from January 9 to January 13 of that year.

We all went along with it, but what if I told you that storm had a name? It was Winter Storm Gerri.

When Did Winter Storms Get Names?

Unlike hurricanes, winter storms don’t get their names from the National Weather Service. Instead, the Weather Channel took the lead and they started naming the winter storms 14 years ago. Why? They explain:

This is done to raise awareness of the hazards of winter storms, including treacherous, challenging driving conditions, potential power outages and tree damage.

An unintended consequence of the names? Better social media results for people searching for information on how winter weather was affecting their area. Clicking a generic hashtag like #WinterStorm often leads to those of us in the Pacific Northwest reading about snow in Buffalo, NY that we don’t care about. But #WinterStormGerri? You got more images and forecasts for what the storm was doing in our region.

Which Winter Storms Get Names?

The Weather Channel reveals that they’ll give names to storms that are either part of a National Weather Service winter storm, blizzard or ice warning covering a population of at least two million Americans OR a storm that’s part of those warnings covering at least an area of 400,000 kilometers. They do NOT name lake-effect storms.

2025-2026 Winter Storm Names Revealed

So which storms will all be posting about on social media this year? (Because let’s face it, every time it snows you post about it on Facebook…) The Weather Channel just released these names for the upcoming winter.