On November 7, 2011, a severe weather event was unfolding over northeast Texas and southwest/central Oklahoma. A rare supercell thunderstorm was spawning multiple tornadoes near the Texas border southwest of Oklahoma City. Storm chasers and weather enthusiasts were monitoring the situation and using social media to report the information-in real time, to emergency management and the local community.
Storm chasing has evolved with the times!
I've been storm chasing (as a hobby) for over fifteen years and coming home in one piece requires a tenacious team effort to successfully plot, assess risks, and safely navigate the storm once it begins venting its wrath. Typical high-precipitation supercell thunderstorms-such as the one that spawned the tornadoes on November 7th in Oklahoma, can reach upward of 70,000 feet, and produce hail to depths of a foot. Their straight-line winds can exceed one hundred miles per hour. Five inches of rain or more can be dumped, and they can yield vicious lightning to the tune of 500+ strokes per minute. Armed with social media tools, we can now alert the public in ways never before possible.
First, during the events of November 7th, real-time updates from the National Storm Prediction Center and other weather sources were tweeted or posted on Facebook. This information reached hundreds of thousands of people, instantly:
Once tornadoes were spotted, warnings were posted on Facebook and tweeted:
This was the tornado referred to in the above Facebook and Twitter posts:
Social media tools offer distinct advantages for alerting the public of severe weather events. First, we can now tweet or post on Facebook and Google+: radar loops, storm coordinates, and live streaming video of the tornado's path-as we see it unfold. This was not possible, even just a few years ago. This affords a greater chance to save lives by alerting people that may not be tuned into local weather reports when the severe weather event is bearing down on their community.
In short, for storm chasing, the advances in social media are saving lives by allowing us to effectively transmit pertinent storm information to those that need it most.