Growing up, I watched weather events occur around the world on the Weather Channel. Seeing Jim Cantroire get excited over thundersnow used to be one of my favorite clips that would flash on our television screen, along with the shows they used to play into the night, such as So You’d Think You’d Survive and Twist of Fate. As the early to mid-2010s started passing by, social media apps such as Twitter (2013), Facebook (2012), and Instagram (2012) started becoming more popular. At that time, most of us probably knew these apps as a way for our parents to post the yearly first day of school photos and to update friends and families on our weekend sports games, but this is not the only usage for social media. Many people also get local and national news from Facebook and Twitter, meaning many journalists and news anchors moved over to social media as another way to spread any necessary news. Meteorologists were included in this to cover forecast updates and other weather-related information.
The first time I was introduced to weather as a career was around middle school, but I knew I wanted to do something related to weather ever since the Discovery Channel would play the Storm Chasers show on live TV while I was in elementary school. My family was big on watching the news, so I remember getting ready for school early in the morning and eating breakfast with Larry Sprinkle as he informed all the viewers of the upcoming weekly weather forecast. When I got home from school, the news would still be on with the broadcasters’ social media handles sitting under their names. At this age, I wasn’t old enough to have my own social media, but I remember my parents having Facebook and wanting to look through photos whenever there was a severe weather threat. Flash forward a few years later, when I was old enough to make an Instagram account, every once in a while, my feed would be full of posts pertaining to specific events.
One of these events was the Moore, Oklahoma Tornado that occurred on May 20th, 2013. The photo to the left (found from a collection by Sam Hughes on Pinterest) was one of the most popular posts I saw being posted on Instagram a couple of days after the tornado occurred. The tornado, rated as an EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, reached a maximum wind speed of 210mph and was on the ground for 40 minutes. During these 40 minutes, the tornado spanned to a width of 1.1 miles wide and left a 14-mile long scar on the town of Moore, killing 24 people and causing around two billons dollars worth of damage (World Vision). On May 31st, 2013, only about a week later, the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado touched down. The National Weather Service initially gave the tornado an EF5 rating but went back and reclassified it as an EF3. Although it had wind speeds reaching almost 300 miles per hour (maximum wind speed was 296mph), the storm occurred in rural areas, not creating enough damage for the EF5 classification. The tornado was on the ground for about 16.2 miles and also lasted around 40 minutes. The El Reno tornado is not only known for its record-setting size and powerful winds, but it is also known for causing the death of popular storm chasers and researchers Carl Young, Tim Samaras, and his son, Paul Samaras. Going back in time two years in 2011 was the 2011 Tornado Super Outbreak (EarthSky). During this time, on May 22nd, Joplin, Missouri, was hit by one of the most deadliest tornadoes to hit the United States, killing 161 people and injuring a little over 1,000 more. This tornado had the maximum wind speeds of 200 miles per hour, caused close to three billion dollars in damages, and was on the ground for about 38 minutes. At some points in its life span, the tornado’s width was a mile wide (NIST). I can clearly remember all three of these tornadoes having remembrance pictures being posted by my classmates on Instagram.
The following social media account I made was on Twitter. Although I’ve been familiar with the app for a couple of years now, I’ve only recently started using an account for the weather discourse community. I am able to receive updates from specific National Weather Service offices, tornado warnings that are issued around the country, and see pictures from other people of what the weather is like where they live. In addition to being able to keep up with events in the country, having a Twitter account helped me stay informed about events that were happening around that world that the daily news may not cover. Twitter is also an excellent way to make connections within the community.
One of the people I follow on Twitter is Sophia Amarta, a broadcast meteorologist who works as a broadcast meteorologist for NBC12 in Richmond, Virginia. I first found her on the app TikTok when she would record and post “Get Ready with Me” videos while doing an internship at a local news station her senior year of college. In these videos, she would have to get up very early in the morning to get ready, do her makeup, and finish up any forecasts she would be doing while on air. When I started using Twitter for meteorological purposes more often, I followed her because I liked her content. The things she posts on Twitter differ from what she posts on TikTok. On Twitter, she posts things related to the local weather, the things her news station is covering, as well as things happening around the country. I also follow a girl named Maddie. She is another meteorology student who is currently studying at UNC Charlotte. I followed her when I first made my account so that I could get my timeline to lean towards weather-related topics. She makes posts relating to her experiences in education as well as her encounters with the weather. I decided to follow these two women because they will provide their experiences in the atmospheric science degree and career pathways as they continue in life and as a woman in a male-dominated field.
In an article titled Making Sense of the Atmospheric Science Gender Gap: Do Female and Male Graduate Students Have Different Career Motives, Goals, and Challenges, a group of authors propose the idea that although men and women go into atmospheric science with similar goals and interests, the difference in experiences may lead those in the department to have different outcomes. Even though the percentage of females within an Atmospheric Science degree program is increasing (Hartten & Lemone, 2014), it is still considered to be a male-dominated field. During the 1960s and 1970s, “the field of atmospheric science (ATS) was male-dominated. At the time, there were very few (median = 5%) women earning ATS undergraduate degrees, and even fewer (median = 3%) women among ATS doctorate earners” (Canetto 2012). When looking at data starting in 1998, the percent of women in atmospheric science stayed around 23%, the highest being in 2008 with 36%. Another question this group of authors asked was if any women within the atmospheric science department have had any sex-related problems. Although done in the 1970s and is not a recent survey, it found that married women tend to struggle the most compared to single women. 73% of the women surveyed reported facing sex-related problems and discrimination but were also reported as “‘the outwardly most productive and successful women’ in the field” (Canetto 2012). One of the advantages of the weather community having an online presence is the ability to connect with other females with similar interests and who may have similar problems, especially when I have the option to talk to those who have already graduated and earned their degrees.
In an interview with my grandma, Harriet Duckett, I asked her to describe what a discourse community meant to her. In response, she said, “I would describe a discourse community as one in which people have a common interest, a common goal where they can sort of speak the same language.” I would agree with her description of a discourse community, especially in regards to my own. Many of us who are interested in weather want to discuss what we see out there in the world and share a common goal of wanting to spread information and keep others informed, which is where I think social media comes in handy in this community. To be involved in the discourse community on Twitter, you don’t need to have a degree in atmospheric science. It is open to anyone old enough to create a Twitter account, so you get the opportunity to interact with a variety of different people who have a variety of different experiences and backgrounds. Not only that, but there is also a wide range of acceptance. Sometimes, in a classroom, it can be intimidating to answer questions or participate in class, especially when it’s predominantly men, but on Twitter, photos are always appreciated, and most people are always ready to discuss the weather, no matter who you are. As a female working towards an atmospheric science degree, it is amazing to be able to see women representing all different sorts of career positions, like broadcasting at a news station or forecasting at the National Weather Service. An academic discourse community can be found at this school in the atmospheric science department with the professors and students, but Twitter offers a larger community with a variety of more people and a variety of different ways to involve yourself.
Social media is also a way for people to track what weather events happened when and provides one with the ability to go back in time and remember what happened. When I was younger, around the age of 13/14, I was in my first significant tornado warning. We had just gotten to the beach house we rented from our neighbors in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. The day had started off nice; it was hot, and the sun was out, but a nice breeze kept us cool. The weather stayed nice all throughout unpacking the cars and getting everyone situated in the rooms they would be staying in for the week, but while some of the adults were out grocery shopping, the clouds started to get darker, and the winds were picking up. At first, none of us thought anything of it, as storms are common on a coastline. My grandpa soon decided to turn on the news as my family had a tradition of taking a walk on the beach the first night we arrived, and he wanted to see how quickly the storm would be moving through the area. Not too much later, the TV’s public safety warning started going off, letting us know that a tornado warning had been issued for our area. My stepmom, grandma, and two of my aunts rushed the kids into the bathroom while all of the dads and my grandpa were on the deck outside watching the sky. Even though this was a scary situation to be in, I wish I had been old enough to have some sort of way to document it, so I could go back to see what was happening in the areas around us and what the radar had looked like that day. Based on the types of posts I see today, I probably would have seen plenty of information about that storm and if a tornado or a waterspout had actually been produced.
Although I wasn’t old enough to know how well documented this thunderstorm was, I have been old enough to see how Twitter reacted to the Fredericktown, Missouri tornado that occurred on October 24th-25th, 2021. Because it happened so late in the year, it can be considered a late-season tornado. In addition to being late in the season, it was also a late-night tornado, with most of the Twitter posts occurring at 8:00 pm CDT or later. Severe weather was predicted for the area that day, but the Fredericktown area was not included when the first tornado watch was announced at 2:05 pm CST and was in effect until 11 pm CDT. It wasn’t until 5:42 pm CDT that a tornado watch was issued for the town and was in effect until 1 am CDT. Going into the evening, tornado warnings were tweeted from the NWS Tornado Twitter account for Missouri and Illinois. The first tornado warning for Fredericktown was issued at 8:48 CDT and was in effect until 9:15 pm CDT. Almost ten minutes after the first warning expired, another was put into place based on the movements of the storm, lasting from 9:24 pm CDT until 10 pm CDT. These were the only two warnings for Fredericktown. While I am not sure the exact time the tornado impacted the town of Fredericktown, I can narrow it down to sometime between 8:45 pm CDT and 9:15 pm CDT. To the left is a radar image (RadarScope) of the storm posted on Twitter by Charles Peek (@CharlesPeekWX) on October 24th, 2021. When a team of National Weather Service employees went out to do a damage survey, they found damage consistent with EF-3 windspeeds, which is in the range of 135-165 miles per hour. Professionals think that this tornado’s top wind speed was 140mph. EF-3 damage consists of floors on well-constructed houses being destroyed and large buildings (such as malls) being severely damaged. When the sun came up the following day and pictures were shared on Twitter, people were able to take ariel view photos of the damage to Fredericktown and its surrounding area. Some of these photos showed walls caving in on houses, houses being shifted from their foundation, light poles being blown over, and trees being unrooted. If Twitter weren’t as popular as it is within the weather community, I probably would not have known this severe weather event occurred, so another benefit to having an online discourse community is the exposure to events not happening around you.
Situations including tornadoes and hurricanes aren’t the only scary weather scenarios to occur. Harriet Duckett recalled a time around the year 1972-1973 during the weekend before Thanksgiving when she lived in Marshall, Virginia. At this time, her husband was overseas serving in the Army, so she was home alone with her eldest son when she experienced the worst snowstorm she has ever encountered. “I guess it was almost called a blizzard. Roads were shut down…people who were going away for Thanksgiving holidays were stuck on this road. They couldn’t go anywhere, and there were helicopters going over dropping food and blankets to these people (Harriet Duckett),” is one way she described it. Over time, the snowstorm got worse. She ended up losing power in her house and had to go over to her neighbors to stay warm as they had a wood-burning stovetop. Although social media didn’t exist at this time, it would have been interesting to see what kind of information was being spread, especially about the people being trapped on Virginia’s route 66. It was also harder to get weather information out then compared to now. When I asked how she currently gets weather information, Harriet responded with, “Sometimes the Channel 12 News app, sometimes from the Weather Channel app, sometimes from the Channel 12 weather, and sometimes from the Weather Channel on TV (Harriet Duckett),” as she isn’t as trustful in information spread on social media apps.
On the contrary, when the snowstorm hit Texas during the month of February in 2021, social media appeared to have been helpful in a couple of ways. At the time, Texas was woefully unprepared for a winter storm of this magnitude, and their power grid was unable to handle the number of people trying to use their heat as much as they could. Days leading up to the storm, there were many forecasts put out stating that residents should be aware of the wintery precipitation and temperatures coming their way. The people had everything they needed forecast-wise, but no one in the state of Texas thought something of that magnitude would be affecting them. In addition to having issues with the power grid, their housing infrastructure was made to withstand hurricane-force wind speeds and weather conditions, but not the weight of snow, causing many roofs to cave in on themselves, leading to even more deaths after the power grid failed. Creating a more considerable forecast exposure was not the only thing Twitter was useful for during this storm. As heating failed and homes were becoming damaged, social media gave people the opportunity to reach out for help. One Texas resident who works for the court system recommend that those who have power should try to take in those who did not. Others reached out, asking if there was any sort of shelter open that had heat. Once the storm passed, I remember seeing many people setting up go-fund-me accounts and letting the world know what they needed to recover from this storm. In terms of weather preparedness, Texas won’t forget how badly they can be impacted by winter weather and will be more aware of what they need to do the next time winter weather comes their way.
Thunderstorms and winter storms aren’t the only time social media can come into use. In an article that was published right after one of the most costliest hurricane seasons in December of 2017 after Hurricanes Maria, Harvey, and Irma made landfall, a group of authors analyzed the importance of social media in terms of communication. Their research presented in Hazardous Weather Prediction and Communication in the Modern Information Environment was supported by the National Science Foundation Award and was initially geared toward an audience of meteorologists after its original publication in the American Meteorological Society monthly magazine, but is overall open to anyone interested in using social media as a platform to promote weather awareness. In this article, the group of authors paid specific attention to Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on the New Jersey coast on October 29th, 2012. One of the first points they make is about the most popular path of communication pertaining to weather. They describe this process as, “In the atmospheric science community, weather risk communication and decision making is often conceptualized as a largely linear process: meteorologist or public authorities create and disseminate a forecast or warning message, which individuals at risk then receive and use to decide whether to evacuate, take shelter, or engage in other preparedness action” (Rebecca Morss). I largely agree with this process and see how this tends to be the most used pathway. I also think that this is an effective process of informing the public as it advises them on what to do in a certain weather event but ultimately lets them make the final decision in their preparedness plans.
The research conducted by the authors of the article analyzied the tweets put out during this process while Hurricane Sandy was making its way towards the United States. Starting five days before the storm was predicted to make landfall, tweets were pulled using keywords such as “hurricane, Sandy, Hurricane Sandy, and Frakenstorm.” As the days got closer to October 29nd, 2012, the number of tweets with the phrase Hurricane Sandy increased, especially as many evacuation orders were implemented. These tweets were published by both those affected by evacuation orders as well as the offices making those statements. The number of tweets decreased going into the overnights hours but was on the increase again the morning after landfall, which was expected as people started waking up. Some of these tweets were “So it looks like Sandy’s coming over for a visit early next week {link to forecast}”(tweeted about a week from landfall), “@NickGregoryFox5 I’m two blocks away from the beach in Arverne. Define major flooding please. #Sandy #ZoneA” (tweeted day leading up to the evacuation order), and “@userB the plan is to dig in and border up” (tweeted after the evacuation order was set in place) (Rebecca Morss). These were not the only tweets the authors used as examples, but these were ones that I felt emphasized the importance of social media in weather communication and followed the linear process described earlier as there is a tweet with access to the forecast, a question asked by someone who lived near the coast to a local meteorlogist about a specific event, and someone’s personal preparedness plan. The article continues to go on to explain how tweets like these about a severe weather event can construct a narrative, which can go on to tell researchers how people are getting information, how they would like to get information in the future, and what they are doing with that information (Rebecca Morss).
Hurricane Sandy was not the only hurricane to be analyzed in relation to social media. During the same year, on August 21, 2012, Hurricane Isaac made landfall on the coastline of Lousiana. Also written by a group of authors and published on February 21st, 2021, in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information is the article Twitter Use in Hurricane Isaac and Its Implications for Disaster Resilience. Here, the authors focused on Twitter’s correlation with the ability to bounce back from any type of disaster, otherwise known as disaster resilience. This study was new, and half of their hypothesis failed when it didn’t prove to have many significant correlations between sentiment scores and disaster variables (Kejin Wang). Still, they were able to find out that there was a positive correlation between tweet density and RIM Score (the resilience probability of a group) (Kejin Wang). Although their hypothesis didn’t work out exactly how they originally thought, the authors discovered two technical issues that may not have been focused on beforehand. These two challenges were described as “the location information extracted from the tweets may not be accurate because of the broad location specifications the users provided,” and “more research is needed to classify tweets based on their content to further explore the application potentials of tweets in predicting community resilience” (Kejin Wang). With these two problems brought to light, future social media and severe weather analysis may be more specific and improved. Additionally, I have to wonder what the data would have been like for the Texas 2021 winter storm and what the comparison would be if a winter storm of this magnitude impacted the same areas in the future.
The rising popularity of social media has not only been picked up on by researchers but also by the National Weather Service. In an article published on their website, they state that “severe weather can occur any time of the year, day or night, across the United States, causing billions of dollars in damage and possibly numerous injuries or fatalities. The primary mission of the National Weather Service (NWS) is to protect lives and property through the timely issuance of watches and warnings when hazardous weather is impending or imminent…Today, social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have made their way towards the top of the list of widely used news resources (NWS),” recognizing that social media is becoming an essential means of communication, especially in the weather community. Further down in the article, they have provided an example of the type of tweets the NWS Tornado Twitter, and the local NWS offices will tweet out during tornado warnings. To the right, I have provided a screenshot that I have taken to show what their warning tweets look like. The National Weather Service’s main reason for using these platforms is to get time-sensitive information out to the public and receive reports back from the public in return. This helps them to make more accurate warnings and watches and helps first responders confirm locations that need immediate help (weather.gov). Like anything, social media has cons to match its pros, which the author(s) of this article points out. Getting reports from the public is helpful, but only when they are positive and truthful. Unfortunately, the National Weather Service receives many false reports, which may delay information or cause hesitation on their part to make a statement. Overall, the National Weather Service is glad to have this communication pathway open to them.
Weather, although beautiful, can be scary to many people. Having effective means of communication and sources of information can be a comfort to them. With upcoming generations that spend much of their time on apps such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, opening up communication pathways on these platforms can save lives in high-risk weather situations. Furthermore, sending out risks and warnings is not the only purpose of these apps. They also provide more opportunities for conversations with other degree-seekers, those who enjoy learning more about the weather, and those that are knowledgeable in this topic who you do not interact with on a daily basis, which allows for new perspectives. Social media platforms are also a way for students to make connections with other students allowing for advice to be gained and experiences to be shared.
Works Cited
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Duckett, Kaitlyn. Personal interview with Harriet Duckett. 30 October 2021.
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“Heavenly Father Praying for Each Person in Oklahoma, for Help in Their Time of Need Due to Devastation and Loss They Are Dealing …: Oklahoma Tornado, Pray, Oklahoma.” Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/119908408801456661/.
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Morss, Rebecca E., et al. “Hazardous Weather Prediction and Communication in the Modern Information Environment.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 98, no. 12, 2017, pp. 2653-2674. ProQuest, http://0-search.proquest.com.wncln.wncln.org/scholarly-journals/hazardous-weather-prediction-communication-modern/docview/1984585683/se-2?accountid=8388, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-16-0058.1.
Peek, Charles. “Tornado North East of Fredericktown, Mo. Pic.twitter.com/vdl8bitmbw.” Twitter, Twitter, 25 Oct. 2021, https://twitter.com/CharlesPeekWX/status/1452455593009192973?s=20.
Peer, Andrea. “2013 Moore, Oklahoma, Tornado: Facts, Faqs, and How to Help.” World Vision, 5 June 2020, https://www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2013-moore-oklahoma-tornado-facts.
Screenshot of Tweet posted by @CharlesPeekWX taken by Kaitlyn Duckett on November 2nd, 2021.
Screenshot of Tweet posted by @NWStornado taken by Kaitlyn Duckett on November 2nd, 2021
“Twitter use in Hurricane Isaac and its Implications for Disaster Resilience.” ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, vol. 10, no. 3, 2021, pp. 116. ProQuest, http://0-search.proquest.com.wncln.wncln.org/scholarly-journals/twitter-use-hurricane-isaac-implications-disaster/docview/2496257518/se-2, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10030116.
US Department of Commerce, NOAA. “How the National Weather Service Leverages Social Media for Severe Weather.” National Weather Service, NOAA’s National Weather Service, 21 June 2017, https://www.weather.gov/wrn/summer-article-how-the-NWS-leverages-social-media.
**This is the revised piece.
