How to get accurate weather information in the era of internet junk
A hurricane is likely going to develop and rapidly intensify before making landfall on the Gulf Coast this week. Meteorologists are in a rush against time to warn folks in harm’s way of the brewing storm to their south.
This is one of the hair-raising scenarios that experts have long feared—not the beast we can watch swirl over the ocean for two weeks, but the sneaky storm that blows up so fast that people hardly have time to blink before it’s threatening our shores.
How do you keep up with all the posts and articles competing for your attention? Here are a few helpful hints to sift out the useful from the harmful.
Follow People Worthy Of Your Trust
The internet is full of junk. It’s been full of junk forever, but the amount of factoid flotsam now bobbing aimlessly through cyberspace has long surpassed the point of manageability.
Content creators on social media have to compete against The Algorithm in order to boost views and engagement. It’s tough to make it on Facebook, Twitter, Threads, Instagram, or YouTube by being thoughtful.
Hyperbole rules the roost alongside the rush to be first. The scariest weather models shared with fifty-cent adjectives are the key to success. It’s also the key to confusing the heck out of average people.
Uncertainty Isn’t Ignorance
Forecasts are great, but look for someone who’s also willing to tell you what they don’t know.
There are plenty of thoughtful meteorologists, experts, and enthusiasts out there who are more interested in you than they are in themselves. It’s just a matter of finding the right people and places. Articles and posts sent out by the big news outlets are solid resources during a storm. (Full disclosure: I’m also a digital writer for The Weather Network.)
Smaller blogs (hi!) are also a fantastic resource if you follow the right ones. The Eyewall is an amazing outlet for tropical news with a level head. Folks like Kim Wood, Tomer Burg, Eric Webb, and Philip Klotzbach are experts in their field and excellent follows on social media when bad weather is brewing.
Please Use Forecasts Over Weather Models
Seeking weather information from a weather model is like using WebMD to diagnose your own maladies—everything turns out to be fatal if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Computer models guide forecasters to create their forecasts. Every weather model has its own flaws and biases. No model is ever 100% correct. It takes knowledge and experience to blend model guidance together in order to create a forecast.
Hurricane season is second only to nor’easter season for weather model imagery making the rounds on social media. Meteorologists themselves are pretty guilty of posting model guidance these days (please use more care, y’all!), but pages like Local Weather Doppler Expert Force 3000 tend to go mega-viral when they post the most outlandish model to get people whipped up.
The National Hurricane Center issues forecasts every six hours with intermediate updates every three hours when there are watches or warnings in effect. Please seek out their official forecasts, as well as guidance from local meteorologists and emergency management officials, when you’re looking for critical information to protect life and property.
If nothing else, please remember that good and accurate information is out there. Whether it’s weather or politics or any of the other pressing issues we deal with, it’s on each of us to search out trustworthy sources and ignore the junk. Meteorologists can only do so much to help us keep ourselves safe.
