at 7:19 PM by Alex Sizemore

Social Media Hype

Hype-Con: 10/10

As expected, hype from Invest 96L has caused quite a stir across social media as of recent. Unfortunately, this bad information is spread to folks who take it seriously and, thus, can’t make the best informed decisions as to if they should prepare or not, and how, etc.

Before I was able to do my own investigation as to a particular source of bad information, social media management had already, seemingly, removed the page from Twitter. Hopefully, the same for Facebook.

Here are a few pointers if you were to see them online:

1. A good rule of thumb here is to watch out for images, such as the one below, that seem more scary than informative. They’re designed to attract attention and views and are camouflaged as forecasts:

2. Another rule of thumb in these situations is to remain skeptical of forecasts when posted from unusual or unverified sources, such as “Weather Alert Central”. Look for a familiar name/organization or the blue verified check mark.

When it comes to seeking information about tropical development, tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes, the best source of information is the National Hurricane Center. These are trained, well experienced, and well educated professionals using state-of-the-art computer technology, satellite and reconnaissance data, and model guidance to track, forecast, and ultimately inform the public of oncoming hazardous tropical weather.

3. Lastly, it is important to remember that when a tropical disturbance is in the early stages of potentially developing into a tropical depression, storm, and hurricane, model guidance is not to be taken verbatim. They are not particularly settled in with accurately forecasting potential tracks at this stage.  The statement below says it best:

“Now that we have entered the heart of the hurricane season, there is an increase in the Internet hype around disturbances that NHC is monitoring. Given the long lead times involved, the wide range of possible outcomes, and the historically poor and erratic performance of guidance models with weak disturbances, there is no reliable science to forecast potential impacts to specific locations that would be more than a week away.”  – National Hurricane Center

This issue relates to an article recently posted on Wx Or Not BG by Landon Hampton: Social Media Accountability

I’m not trying to get my hands dirty with this post, but we all have friends or family that live in areas prone to tropical weather. Make sure they know to follow trusted sources of information (NHC, NWS, and local Meteorologists) and disregard the others. For those of you that may know or have heard of this before, its from the same person.

Here’s James Spann himself calling out this organization:

 

Hopefully this trend doesn’t continue as it potentially threatens the credibility of actual meteorologists not involved. More importantly, it could become a safety issue. Bad information can lead to bad preparation.