Introducing Ahmet: German Weather Patterns Receive a Cultural Overhaul

In a recent announcement, a collective of journalists bestowed a Turkish-origin boy’s name upon a low-pressure system, which is expected to usher in frigid temperatures, dark clouds, and snow across Germany on Tuesday. This decision reflects the nation’s increasingly diverse demographic landscape.

Following Ahmet, other low-pressure systems will be named after individuals with traditionally male Arabic, Kurdish, and Greek names, such as Cemal, Goran, Hakim, and Dimitrios. Conversely, the high-pressure systems anticipated to reach Germany early this year will bear names like Bozena, Chana, or Dragica—names with Polish, Hebrew, and South Slavic origins, traditionally associated with females.

In Germany, the prerogative of naming weather systems that influence day-to-day weather conditions isn’t confined to meteorologists alone. For a fee, anyone can participate in the process: Naming a sunny high-pressure system costs 360 euros ($442), while naming a rainy low-pressure system costs only 240 euros ($295).

To foster a more culturally inclusive approach to weather representation, the New German Media Makers—an association representing journalists from diverse backgrounds—has purchased several low-pressure systems and a few high-pressure systems for the onset of the new year, as Ferda Ataman, the group’s leader, informed The Associated Press.

“Up until now, our weather patterns have predominantly borne typical German names, despite the fact that approximately 26 percent of Germany’s population has migrant backgrounds,” remarked Ataman, whose parents immigrated from Turkey.

The weather-naming initiative, dubbed #WeatherCorrection by the group, serves as a symbolic endeavor aimed at demanding better representation of Germany’s diversity across society.

In addition to advocating for increased diversity in German media outlets, the group is lobbying for the implementation of hiring quotas for journalists of color and journalists from migrant families. According to their estimates, journalists of color are severely underrepresented in the German media landscape, with only 5 to 10 percent of reporters and editors having migrant backgrounds.

In the upcoming year, the low-pressure and high-pressure systems will also bear many traditional German names, including Reinhard, Volker, Margarethe, Trudi, and Waltraud.

In the past, cloudy low-pressure systems were traditionally assigned female names, while sunny high-pressure systems were given male names. However, this practice was changed in 1998, and since then, male and female names have alternated annually between the high-pressure and low-pressure categories.