As Tropical Storm Don approaches land, Trump memes are approaching gale-force levels. The most recent Atlantic tropical cyclone shares its name with the U.S. Commander in Chief, and Twitter is loving it. And the jokes have been rolling in like storm clouds on the social media platform.
Me waiting for weather Twitter to crank out some jokes about newly-formed Tropical Storm #Don pic.twitter.com/jlR7SiMI2f
— Dan Amarante (@DanAmarante) July 17, 2017
Tropical Storm Don. A lot of hot air, going around in circles. https://t.co/waH5NrcpjW
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) July 17, 2017
Tropical Storm Don will tell you how much damage it will do and then fizzle out and blame Hurricane Hillary.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) July 17, 2017
Tropical Storm Don is expected to be the first storm in US history to cause widespread damage in every state of the Union.
— In Related News (@InRelatedNews1) July 17, 2017
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/887056081867857920
Me waiting for Tropical Storm Don to wipe out Mar-a-Lago pic.twitter.com/HIMCvPWISO
— Miss Mary (@Petrie____) July 17, 2017
Though people were quick to draw comparisons between Tropical Storm Don and Donald Trump, the storm’s name has nothing to do with the current U.S. president.
Dennis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) spoke to TheWrap on Monday and confirmed that the shared namesake is purely coincidental. According to Feltgen, the NHC maintains six lists of names that are reused every six years. When a particular storm or hurricane causes significant damage, members of the World Meteorological Organization vote to replace its name.
In 2011, “Don” was voted to replace “Dennis.” Based on the six-year rotation cycle, the name “Don” would be used again in 2017 (and again in 2023).
Nice try, Twitter, but it looks like this one was an accident.
According to The Weather Channel, Tropical Storm Don “will maintain a westward track” over the next few days. It is not anticipated to develop into a hurricane.