Many experts, meteorologists and news organizations have been referring to the massive storm that has brought a deadly mix of snow, ice and frigid temperatures to much of the U.S. as Winter Storm Fern.

Despite the term’s popularity, Fern is not the official name of this storm. That’s because it doesn’t have an official name at all. Only the National Weather Service can formally name a storm, and the NWS only does it for tropical storms like hurricanes.

So where did Fern come from? The Weather Channel. Starting in 2012, the Weather Channel began independently giving monikers to specific winter storms as a way to “raise awareness of the hazards of winter storms.” Part of its inspiration was to provide a specific term that people could use to find information in the social media age.

“When Twitter became a force in 2011, it was clear that a hashtag would be required for each storm, so information could be filtered,” the American Meteorological Society wrote in 2018.

The National Weather Service has said it has “no plans” to consider adopting the Weather Channel’s practice because, it argues, specific names might actually make it harder for people to find the most important information they need.

“Winter storm conditions can vary widely and over a very large area, from community to community,” the agency told USA Today. “It’s critical that people understand how a storm will impact them, in their area or where they are going.”