This year's weather

[yasmina27]

This year's weather reminds me of a movie called "The Storm Named Maria" that they showed us numerous times in elementary school. It absolutely scared the crap out of me. This huge storm hits CA and makes its way across the US. To this day I can still see in my mind them uncovering the snow-covered car of a newlywed couple (dead). I'm still not sure why they thought it was a good movie for us to watch.

Even though, through googling, I have learned that it was produced by Disney (before they started making PG movies), I can't believe that this movie was shown to elem. students. Maybe this is why I am so environmentally conscious - I don't want anything like what I saw in that movie ever occurring.

The movie doesn't claim that the storm was caused by global weather change, but it's hard as an adult with knowledge, not to make the connection.

This movie, and the song "They Called the Wind Maria" (from Paint Your Wagon) were inspired by a book called "Storm" written by George R. Stewart in 1941. He was the climatologist who inspired the NWS to use personal names for storms.

Does anyone else remember this movie? Anyone know where I could get a copy?

[Say_What]

1. It was actually: "They Call The Wind Mariah"

not Maria. and the movie was funny as hell :-)

You can rent it from netflix and maybe buy it from amazon.

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?trkid=73&movieid=60010761

[yasmina27]

2. I never saw "Paint Your Wagon"

But it's not the movie I was referring to. Even on Amazon, and IMBd (or whatever) the song is titled "They Call the Wind Maria" not Mariah. I thought that too at first. I had trouble finding it because of that. Mariah Carey - according to one website - was named after the song, so I guess we're all used to that spelling.

[Say_What]

3. Oops.... the sheet music is spelled 'Maria'

but pronounced Mariah when sung in Paint Your Wagon.

I couldn't google anything up either on the other movie except for what you noted.

[yasmina27]

4. Thank you

When I first started looking, I questioned my memory and my sanity.

Here's an interesting bit:

Perhaps, the naming of storms has its roots in George Stewart's 1941 best-seller, and now classic, weather novel Storm. In the story, the junior meteorologist gives each storm appearing on the maps he is plotting a name. The storm (though not a tropical storm) that is to dominate the story he christened Maria. Stewart notes in the book's introduction that he originally intended the name to be pronounced in the soft Spanish way with the second syllable being ree: Ma-ree-a. But he later realized that the storm Maria was "too big for any man to embrace and much too boisterous." He advises, "So put the accent on the second syllable, and pronounce it ‘rye'" (as in Ma-rye-a). A decade later, composers/lyricists Lerner and Loewe wrote a song for their musical Paint Your Wagon entitled They Call The Wind Maria, giving it Stewart's hard pronunciation.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2000/alm00jun.htm

Some additional info about the movie:

Storm (1941) by George R. Stewart
Actually this novel is not about a hurricane, but an extratropical cyclone. However, I give it an honorable mention here since it depicts a Junior Meteorologist who has a personal habit of naming storms. This helped to popularize the idea of naming hurricanes. It was made into a Disney TV movie "A Storm named Maria" in 1958, and inspired the song "They Call the Wind Maria" from 1951's Lerner and Lowe play "Paint Your Wagon".
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/J4.html