For the record, this one can be remembered as Winter Storm Xerxes.

In the tradition of naming hurricanes, Mike Kennedy, director of maintenance and repair for the Minneapolis Public Works Department, has been christening wintry blasts this season, naming each one in alphabetical order. Not the names of people, but of streets in Minneapolis.

"We do it mostly for fun," said Kennedy, who is also public works' winter operations overlord. "But secondly, it does force us to kind of count the storms. It helps people realize there are a lot of events out there that force us to respond. It's not just the snow emergencies."

Kennedy gives a name to any winter event that prompts the department to mobilize trucks. That's not necessarily a blizzard. It could be freezing rain that requires sanding and salting, or side-street plowing that's not part of a formal snow emergency.

Thursday's storm, which crippled afternoon traffic, was the 24th such event of the season.

That brought Kennedy to his only X: Xerxes Avenue, apparently one of only two streets in the nation named for the Persian king. (The other one is in Winter Haven, Fla.)

Xerxes now has another distinction in Kennedy's system. Because it prompted a snow emergency, Xerxes will be retired from use as a storm name. It will join Waverly (Waverly Place in the Kenwood neighborhood), last weekend's storm, and Knox (Dec. 20), in that hall of fame. From now on, Kennedy will just have to skip X, he said.

Kennedy has 400 names to choose from. After he reaches Z with street names, he'll turn to names for neighborhoods -- Armatage, Beltrami, CARAG, etc. -- until winter ends. Next winter he'll start over with street names.

With snowy March coming, the chances of reaching Z (Zenith Avenue) are good. But he said he's hoping it doesn't produce another snow emergency. It's his only Z.