HURRICANE Friedhelm would have been a small footnote in meteorological history.
Friedhelm, so called by the Free University of Berlin, which has the job of naming bad weather outbreaks in Europe, was the intense mid-latitude storm that brought hurricane-force winds to Scotland last week.
Renamed Hurricane Bawbag by some west of Scotland wag, it achieved much more notoriety. Bawbag trended on Twitter. It went viral on Facebook and YouTube. Bawbag headlined on The Huffington Post.
It was the talk of the steamie. There was a public clamour for Sean the weatherman on STV to use the B-word on his bulletins.
Americans tweeted re Bawbag: "You've named your storm scrotum? That's awesome." Folk from Ohio commented that it was a great name but not much of a hurricane, get over it. There was an air of indomitability about the Bawbag factor. Slates were flying on city streets, buses overturned, cars flattened by falling trees. The social network sites were full of warnings, advice and concern for others. Luckily, there seems to have been no serious casualties.
But there was Bawbag banter aplenty and parodies of mainstream media coverage. A video of a trampoline bowling along a street became an instant hit with an OMG voice-over. A tweeter reported breathlessly: "A plant pot has fallen over in Airdrie. An eye witness retold the horror. 'It pure went sideways'."
It was the spirit of the great storm of January 1968 reincarnated, given instant expression and worldwide coverage. It was also an occasion for entrepreneurialism. Hurricane Bawbag T-shirts and bling were on sale within hours. You may get some for Christmas.
In years to come, people will remember where they were during the scrotum storm. Most were safe indoors watching it on the web.
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