AMS: Best Practices for Sharing Weather Information on Social Media

Earlier this year at the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) 2017 Annual Meeting in Seattle, the AMS Council adopted a set of "best practices" for publicly sharing weather information via social media. As most of you are aware, there are many choices when it comes to consuming weather information. From local TV, to national cable channels, to government and private company websites, to NOAA Weather Radio, to social media, to mobile apps, and even your refrigerator... anyone (or anything) can produce weather data. That information may originate from a degreed or certified meteorologist, a broadcaster or reporter, a young person with passion but little to no training (that was me 25 years ago!), or (more often these days) just a computer model run through the Internet of Things.

At MemphisWeather.net, we our proud of the fact that our forecasts are human-powered by a meteorologist with 25 years experience in the Memphis area and our social media content is generated by either that same meteorologist, who also holds the National Weather Association Digital Seal, or meteorologists-in-training under the careful tutelage of said meteorologist. We have espoused the practices adopted by the AMS since our first tweet in April 2009. In the vein of full disclosure and public transparency, we thought it would be a good idea to list those best practices and let you decide if you agree with our (admittedly-biased) assessment. Here is a statement from the document on who should observe these practices:

The best practices outlined below aim to encourage the dissemination of high-quality weather information to the general public on social media platforms (i.e., mobile and web-based technologies)...These best practices are also designed to help social media users know what to look for and what to avoid when seeking weather information.

In other words, the best practices are an outline not only of what good weather information should look like on social media, but also what you should expect from your "trusted sources." With that, here they are, with sub-comments (in parentheses) edited only for length.

Best Practices for Publicly Sharing Weather Information Via Social Media

The overall goal should be delivering a time-sensitive product that communicates weather information clearly and professionally commensurate with the users’ understanding of the science. A quality social media weather information service should:

• Differentiate between short-range forecasts, extended-range forecasts, and outlooks. (In short- or medium-range forecasts (i.e., less than 7 days), offer as much detail as the science allows. Do not imply that extended-range forecasts (i.e., 8 days and beyond) are as reliable as short-range forecasts. Clearly identify outlooks as such and avoid misrepresenting an outlook as a specific forecast of weather elements for a specific area.)
• Recognize the limitations of numerical weather predictions. (When displaying or sharing computer model forecasts, identify them as such. )
• Communicate uncertainty and be transparent. (When displaying or sharing forecasts that are highly complex and/or involve longer lead times, communicate the full range of scenarios. Communicate the degree of confidence in their forecasts and educate their users about the level of agreement among forecast models and the likelihood of a particular outcome. Respond to all comments and replies to their social media posts in a manner that offers insight into their forecast reasoning while being professional and respectful.)
• Carefully and responsibly craft headlines and key messages. (If providers work in organizations where they do not have total control of all weather-related content, they should work diligently to educate and influence the appropriate content producers regarding the responsible communication of weather information.)
• Offer a schedule for updates (While a regular schedule may not be applicable, providers of social media weather information should advise users when they can expect more information.)
• Include NOAA watch, warning, and advisory products or hazardous weather outlooks.
• Use discretion when disagreeing with “official” NOAA forecasts, especially during high-impact events. (The reasoning behind the forecast and the disagreement should be explained.)
• Alert the public about appropriate response to severe weather events.
• Include climatology information. (Put the current or predicted weather conditions into perspective with background climatology.)
• Identify where and when weather data originated and provide appropriate credit.
• Provide links to other relevant data. (This is especially true during hazardous weather situations when the user may need a source for weather alerts or information about the appropriate response to the hazardous weather.)

So, do we measure up? Let us know what you think in the comments. We promise none will be censored! And thanks for trusting MemphisWeather.net for your weather needs!

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Rain in Arkansas - will it effect the Memphis metro tonight?

A shortwave (or impulse of atmospheric energy) is rotating south around the backside of a large upper level trough over the eastern U.S. mentioned in yesterday's blog. This wave has combined with heating to force scattered thunderstorms and showers over western portions of the Mid-South and Ozark region.  

Below is the radar image from Little Rock taken about 4:15pm Sunday. The showers and storms are moving southeast, but only at about 15 mph (pretty slow for storms).  If they held together and continued on their same track, a few could affect the Memphis metro area (right-center of the image).  However the cells up around Jonesboro are weakening pretty quickly (hence the dashed arrow pointing at Memphis). And while new cells could form, it would take about 3-4 hours for this precipitation to make it to the metro. By then, the sun is setting - one of the key ingredients in the formation and maintenance of these showers and storms.

Our metro forecast: increasing clouds the next couple of hours with a slight chance of rain, mainly in far western portions of the metro (along and west of the river in AR). Most folks will see little to nothing from this wave other than clouds. I think we'll have to be content with temps falling into the 70s after dark and low humidity, which should make for a pleasant evening! The rest of the week's forecast can be found on MWN here.

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Welcome new MWN team members!

As many of our followers and friends know, MemphisWeather.net (MWN) excels in providing precise and vital storm information via social media when inclement weather threatens or is ongoing. Called "nowcasting," MWN was (and still is) one of the only organizations in the nation to provide this service consistently on social media, namely Twitter and Facebook.  We let you know where storms are, what threats they pose, when they will affect an area, and (sometimes most importantly to our followers) when they will be done.  We relay all watches and warnings for the 8-county metro area and describe the exact threats storms pose in a way the general public (not fellow meteorologists) can understand.

Nowcasting for the 4,000+ square mile metro area and it's 1.3 million residents would not be possible without the assistance of our nowcasters, social media student interns who volunteer their time to gain rich experience in Mid-South weather patterns, meteorological data interpretation, and social media communication - the new frontier in information dissemination.

Over the past year, MWN nowcasting has risen to a new level with the assistance of nowcaster Kevin Terry (/KT on our social media posts).   Kevin's diligence, quick grasp of new challenges, and weather knowledge obtained through independent study as well as a stint as an intern with the National Weather Service, have resulted in an exceptional, consistent, and thorough product on MWN's social media channels.  Kevin has also enhanced MWN's new #mSpotter Twitter-based storm spotting program, providing the National Weather Service with crucial ground-based information that has helped to verify severe weather warnings.  Kevin will be departing MWN in mid-August to begin graduate studies in Meteorology at Mississippi State University. His shoes will be big ones to fill and we are grateful for his service over the past year!

Heading into the fall, MWN is pleased to introduce you to two individuals who will take Kevin's place and serve as nowcasters on our team.  Patrick Luckett (/PL) is an Earth Sciences major and senior at the University of Memphis and also holds an Associate Degree in Business Administration from Southwest TN Community College. Patrick has also served as an intern with the National Weather Service and brings experience in radar and forecast model interpretation and collecting storm damage reports at the NWS. He has "always loved weather" and has been a Weather Channel fan since a young age.  It took until his junior year of college though to decide that his love would also be his career! Patrick will attend graduate school in Meteorology at Mississippi State beginning in fall 2013.  Welcome to MWN, Patrick!

Our other addition for this fall is Hunter Smith, also a senior Earth Sciences major at the University of Memphis.  Hunter (/HS) has also had a fascination with weather from a young age, perhaps encouraged by a grandmother who takes detailed daily weather observations at her home in Brownsville, TN.  Hunter also hails from Brownsville and, in addition to taking classes at U of M, works in the Sparks Bureau of Business and Economic Research on campus.  Hunter, like Patrick, will attend Mississippi State University beginning in fall 2013, working towards a Master's in Meteorology. We also welcome Hunter to the MWN team!  You will see plenty of posts by Patrick and Hunter on our social media streams over the coming months.

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Visit MemphisWeather.net on the web or m.memphisweather.net on your mobile phone.
Download our iPhone or Android apps,  now with StormWatch+!
Nowcasting services available on our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Recap of Mid-South severe storms and MWN's storm coverage - January 22, 2012

Contrary to Monday night's lead story on ABC World News, severe storms moved into the Mid-South with plenty of advance notice (MWN Blog post #1, MWN Blog post #2) on Sunday night.  The morning started like a typical winter day - cool and cloudy - but quickly changed such that by late afternoon, it felt like spring as a very spring-like severe weather episode unfolded.  By the end of the event, and certainly the next morning after seeing images of devastation in places like Fordyce, AR and Birmingham, AL, we realized how fortunate we were here in the Mid-South.  Though several tornado warnings were issued in the eight-county metro area, we were fortunate to not have tornadic damage, even though the environmental setup strongly favored their formation.

Zoomed view of the squall line as it crossed the metropolitan Memphis area around 10:20pm

However, that doesn't mean the metro escaped completely. Teams of storm damage surveyors from NWS-Memphis visited a number of sites over the past couple of days to assess damage.  The map below shows the reports of severe weather received in the metro during this event (wind, hail, tornado) with an interactive version of this map available here.

In the metro, reports of 58-65 mph wind were received in east Memphis and Atoka (Tipton Co.), multiple interstate signs were blown down on I-55 near the MS/TN state line, power lines were down in Robinsonville (Tunica Co.) and Mason (Tipton Co.), 13,500+ MLGW customers lost power, and straight-line wind of approximately 105 mph lifted a large roof off a building and dropped it 200 feet away across railroad tracks in an area just east of Memphis International Airport around 10:20pm.

In the latter case (105 mph wind), we were able to retrieve the Doppler wind velocity data from the NEXRAD and have inserted an annotated version below.  The radar detected 87 mph wind at an altitude of approximately 14,00 feet above the ground.  Note the localized nature of the high wind field (small area of light blue color).  In fact, the airport itself reported a maximum wind gust of 40 mph. We hypothesize that this damaging wind might have been the result of a downburst, or microburst, of wind from the thunderstorm overhead.

To recap MemphisWeather.net's efforts before and during the event, two blog posts (linked above) were written on Saturday and Sunday, describing in detail the potential for severe and damaging storms.  We used social media and the MWN Forecast to continually keep our followers abreast of the developing situation, including relaying safety tips ahead of time in order to properly prepare for the storm's effects. Beginning at 5pm (5+ hours before damage occurred in Memphis), we began our wall-to-wall nowcasting coverage of the storms, entering "severe weather mode" and splitting duties so that both Erik and Kevin could provide updates for the duration of the event.

Our nowcasting efforts covered a total of 7 straight hours (including a couple of periods in which Twitter had significant issues that limited our ability to post) with a total of 265 tweets and untold number of Facebook posts.  We covered the issuance of 6 Tornado Warnings and 10 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, naming the communities to be impacted and when the danger had passed.  Thanks to YOU and your referrals to friends and family, we also added well over 1,000 new followers on Facebook and Twitter, bringing us very close to the 10,000 follower mark among all our social feeds!  We are so grateful that you choose to put your trust in us.  It is not something we take lightly.

Be safe and be weather aware.

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For up-to-date weather information for Memphis and the Mid-South, where and when you need it, visit MemphisWeather.net on the web, m.memphisweather.net on your mobile phone, download our Android app, and visit us on Facebook or Twitter.

The Top 11 of '11: Mid-South weather stories from MWN (part 1)

Everybody does Top 10 lists to end the year (or daily if your name is David Letterman), so MWN decided we should too.  Only once we put together the list of Top 10 Mid-South weather stories of 2011, the list was 10+1, or 11 if you are up on your 1st grade math!  So we decided that since it was 2011 we were talking about, we'd make an exception and call it the "Top 11 of '11".  No word yet on whether there will be 12 next year... so without further delay we bring you (in true Letterman fashion, counting down from 11) the first 3:

"The Top 11 of '11" - Mid-South Weather Stories from MemphisWeather.net

# 11. Aurora Borealis appears in Mid-South skies
On the evening of October 24 around 9pm, I was checking my Twitter feed when people started reporting seeing a red glow in the sky across the southern states, including many Mid-South locations.  Reports from NC to AR, including locations as far south as northern AL and MS, were flooding my feed of mainly weather and news accounts. Quick sleuthing and some timely and informative tweets pointed to the event being a rare Aurora Borealis, which resulted from a coronal mass ejection from the sun early that afternoon. The image below was one that I highlighted in a blog post that evening that further described the event, including what causes the Aurora and why it was red.  While not unprecedented, it has been years since the Aurora has been visible this far south in the U.S.  Perhaps more of this type of solar activity will be possible as the lately-dormant sun enters an active sunspot period that peaks in a little over a year?

Aurora captured in Corning, AR on October 24, 2011

# 10. MWN at the forefront of social media nowcasting
While not a "weather event," one of the facets of weather reporting that has taken off in the past year is the explosion in nowcasting the weather via social media.  Nowcasting is very-short-term forecasting, most often encompassing only the next 1-4 hours.  More and more, operational meteorologists, broadcast professionals, and even enthusiasts are turning to Facebook and Twitter to update their audience on current weather events and solicit reports, particularly during severe weather episodes.  Even the National Weather Service has begun using social media.

MWN is proud to have been at the forefront of this new style of weather reporting, having started nowcasting for the Memphis metropolitan area nearly three years ago in the spring of 2009.  Thanks to some wild weather in greater Memphis this past year (more on these events as we continue the countdown) and momentum generated during our first couple of years on social media, MWN's nowcasting service quickly became well-known.  We are proud to say that we went "wall-to-wall" for every severe and winter event in 2011 and the growth in our follower-ship responded accordingly, tripling on both Facebook and Twitter!  Thank you for trusting us to keep you updated, safe, and informed during hazardous (and even placid) weather conditions!

• AP story on nowcasting, featuring MWN's Erik Proseus and David Drobny of Nashville
• "Tennessee Matters" interview with Erik on nowcasting, which was heard on the Tennessee Radio Network (MP3)
• MWN nowcasting on Facebook and Twitter

Exposure produced by MemphisWeather.net tweets on February 25, 2011

# 9. Addition of key team members helps MWN expand it's presence
There will be plenty of weather events in our Top 11 (in fact, we're saving many of the top spots just for those), but one other weather "story" for MemphisWeather.net this year was the addition of a few individuals to our team that allowed us to grow exponentially and expand our product and service offerings that directly benefit you.

• Though not employed by MWN, one of the best decisions I made in early 2011 was contracting with Ben Deming (@bendeming) to design and code our first-ever mobile applications.  Ben possesses a very broad skill set that allowed him to develop not only our iPhone app, but also an Android app, and assist with other minor software and server-related issues.
• Late this summer, a decision was made that, to continue to keep up the ambitious pace that MWN had grown to, we needed some help. The search began for individual with basic meteorology knowledge that was also teachable, interested in social media, and a good communicator, among other things.  It didn't take long to find the person who has evolved into my right hand man - social media nowcaster and blogger, Kevin Terry (@jterry0).  Kevin quickly embraced the mission of MWN, took over a sizable part of the nowcasting requirements, and allowed me to work on expanding MWN's presence through new services and marketing efforts.  Kevin will remain with MWN through at least June 2012.
• Though those are the two individuals I deal with most often, there are certainly others whose contributions have allowed MWN to rapidly expand this year.  They include: Wayne Randall, owner of IT company Nextek, whose generous offer of server space in his data center ensures the reliable delivery of products and services to MWN; Amy Howell (@howellmarketing) and Alys Drake (@alysdrake) of world-class marketing firm Howell Marketing Strategies, who assist in making sure the MWN story is told; and countless others in Memphis and Mid-South social media and business circles who help us disseminate our words and information to the masses - you know who you are, and we thank you!

Those are the first 3 of the "Top 11 of '11"! We'll reveal a couple more each day through New Year's Eve here on the MWN Blog  (and I promise they won't be weighted nearly as heavily on MWN but much more about actual weather events!).  What Mid-South weather event do you think should be #1 this year?

Isolated t'storm over the heart of the city

RADAR UPDATE, 7pm:

MWN StormView Radar is now showing the storm to have completely dissipated. The airport reported a wind gust to 38 mph from the north as the outflow from the storms crossed over, though no rain was recorded. The temperature dropped to 88 degrees.  No further rain is expected this evening for those expecting to see fireworks downtown or perhaps in your driveway!

ORIGINAL POST:

As of 6:15pm, a lone thunderstorm has popped up in the heart of Memphis, inside the I-240 loop, in the past hour and is moving very little.  An Urban Flood Advisory was issued as some areas directly under the storm could see 1-2" of rain.  It also caused a 35 minute rain delay at AutoZone Park for tonight's Memphis Redbirds game, but the game will be played and fireworks will follow.

Below is a screenshot of the storm taken about 6:10pm. You'll notice the typical summertime "outflow" emanating away from the storm. This is due to wind rushing downward inside the storm, hitting the ground and spreading out in all directions. Commonly, this is called a microburst and it can produce strong straight-line wind. The outflow could also spark additional shower development, though so far it has not done that. MWN will continue to monitor and update everyone via Twitter and Facebook this evening. Play ball!

Isolated thunderstorm directly over the city with outflow propagating out from it

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For weather information for Memphis and the Mid-South, where and when you need it, visit MemphisWeather.net on the web, m.memphisweather.net on your mobile phone, download our iPhone or Android apps, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.