Severe Weather Awareness Week 2021 has come to an end. Today’s final topic is social media. I will begin by saying that I am absolutely humbled by the social media following you all have built up for me. It is quite the honor to have so many folks relying on me for their weather and severe storm information. It’s a responsibility I never take lightly.
Social media is wonderful for spreading the word about severe weather. I can post something on Facebook and/or Twitter and hundreds of people know within minutes that severe storms are in the forecast. That’s awesome. The only thing I would always recommend is to make sure the post is current. You can see the date and time it was posted on the post itself. I can’t tell you how many times people have messaged me a nervous wreck because they saw that our county was under a tornado warning. The only problem is that warning was three weeks ago. Check the date.
Make sure any social media site is credible. Be especially leery of wild claims of severe weather that is more than a week away. Bad grammar is often a clue that a site isn’t to be trusted. Typing in all capital letters, as if they are screaming at you, is also often a clue that a site should not be trusted. What credentials does the author or the site have? How accurate have they been in the past? I never understand why some social media sites get shared over and over again, even though their outrageous forecasts are wrong all the time.
Never tell another meteorologist what another meteorologist is forecasting (ha). If we agreed with them, we’d have said the same thing. Same goes for apps.
Think before you share a post. Always remember that there are a lot of folks in our area who are scared to death of storms, especially after the spring we had last year. Please don’t cause unnecessary panic because you found a dramatic weather forecast that you knew would stir folks up. Then, I get slammed with people asking me if it’s true, while I’m trying to relay actual factual information.
Let’s do our best to be responsible with social media, especially when it comes to severe weather information.
As always, I’ve have to do a plug for NOAA radio. You just can’t go wrong with these things. Most tornadoes in the South are at night and that is why our death toll from tornadoes is highest in the South than in any other part of the country. A weather radio will wake you up.
Don’t have a weather radio? Get one! Get it today. Having trouble programming it? I’ll be at Grinder House Coffee Shop on Saturday, March 13th, from 11:00 – 1:00 and you can swing by and let me program it for you. Or, just swing by to chat some weather. I’d love that! The link to the radio I recommend most highly can be found at https://amzn.to/2MQhgKu
You all take care and enjoy this quiet March weather….while it last!
