NWS and Twitter

2011 Georgia Emergency 2011 Georgia Emergency Management Summit and Training Management Summit and Training

SessionSession

Twitter and the National Weather Twitter and the National Weather ServiceService

By Tim Brice By Tim Brice WFO El PasoWFO El PasoMay 25May 25thth, 2011, 2011

Why even consider TwitterWhy even consider Twitter

• It is where the people are.

• It is how the public is communicating.

• It is how the public is getting their news.

“Rather than trying to convince the public to adjust to the way we at FEMA communicate, we must adapt to the way the public communicates by leveraging the tools that people use on a daily basis”

FEMA Administrator Craig FugateMay 5th 2011 Senate Subcommittee testimony

What is Twitter?What is Twitter?

According to According to TwitterTwitter, Twitter is:, Twitter is:

““without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now.”

Perhaps a less biased description of Perhaps a less biased description of Twitter would:Twitter would:

“Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.” - Wikipedia

What is a Tweet?What is a Tweet?

It is a 140 character (or less) message that a user (tweeter) sends out that is posted on their Twitter home page and also sent to the tweeter’s subscribers called followers?

Tweets can include:• A simple text message• Links to a picture• Links to a web page

The advantages of TwitterThe advantages of Twitter

• Large user database• 200+ million users around the world.• 50+ million users in the U.S.

• Easy to get tweets into Twitter via web page, text, app, even land line phones.

• Easy to search tweets and get results through various programs and apps.

What Weather Info People TweetWhat Weather Info People Tweet

• Eyewitness weather info• “Golf ball size hail at my house”

• Benign weather info• “Sunny and warm today”

• Weather information• “There is flooding on the east side of

town.”

How to hear and be heardHow to hear and be heard

• Almost 65 million tweets a day

• How can you cut through all the junk to send or receive useful information?

• The answer is using tweet hash tags.

What are tweet hash tagsWhat are tweet hash tags• Anyone can make up a hash tag

• Example of hash tags are:• #EMAG11• #braves• #savannah

• Hash tags allow someone to follow all the posts related to the hash tag.

•You can have more than one hast tag in a tweet

Weather Hash TagsWeather Hash Tags

• Eyewitness weather info• #wxreport

• Benign weather info• #wxob

• Weather information• #STwx (where ST is your state abbrev.)

Weather Hash TagsWeather Hash Tags1. #wxreport 2. #wxob 3. #STwx (where "ST" is your state two letter id)

For the #wxreport, it would cover significant weather the tweeter actually saw and would include: tornado, hail, snow greater than an inch, dense fog and dust, floods, strong winds etc.

For the #wxob, it would cover weather observed that was not significant and would include: standard weather obs, non-significant weather etc.

For the #STwx, it would cover weather information that would be useful to the public and would include: reported storm tracks, reported storm damages, road closures, watch and warning information etc.

NWS and TwitterNWS and Twitter

The National Weather Service wants to tap into this army of weather enthusiasts (trained and untrained) who use Twitter and give them a quick easy way to transmit their weather reports.

What do the tweeters do?What do the tweeters do?

http://weather.gov/stormreports (public information page)

#wxreport plotted#wxreport plotted

#wxreport plotted#wxreport plotted

#wxreport plotted#wxreport plotted

Advantages/DisadvantagesAdvantages/Disadvantages

Advantages:

• Potential to receive hundreds of weather tweets

• You can monitor the tweets yourself

• Real time feedback for ongoing weather

• Reports and pictures and videos, oh my!

• Did I mention that it is free!!!

Disadvantages: • Some junk and spam tweets and incorrect observations

• Some tweeters are not following the specific format

NWS Twitter FutureNWS Twitter Future

• Continue the Storm Reports via Twitter Project

• June 1st eight test offices get Twitter accounts including NHC

• County/Parish based Twitter accounts to feed warnings to

• If testing goes well, all offices to get Twitter accounts in the future.

Tim BriceTim Brice

[email protected]@noaa.gov

@timbrice17@timbrice17

NWS – El Paso TXNWS – El Paso TX

Storm reports via Twitter project information (#wxreport):Storm reports via Twitter project information (#wxreport):http://www.weather.gov/stormreportshttp://www.weather.gov/stormreports

3rd Party page showing the mapped tweets:http://ow.ly/51rpmhttp://ow.ly/51rpm

This presentation:This presentation: http://ow.ly/51rmp http://ow.ly/51rmp

Weather hash tagsWeather hash tags #wxreport#wxreport, , #wxob#wxob and and #STwx#STwx

Questions???Questions???