Live from the root cellar?

By Anna V.

 

I’ve been fascinated with severe weather, especially tornadoes, since the fifth grade.  Living in New York, where tornadoes are rare, left me with a lack of data for my fifth grade science project about this phenomenon. I remember my mother being advised to call Buffalo because there was more weather data available there.  These days, either one of us could just have emailed them and gotten the data that way!  The first tornado footage I ever saw was on VHS.  It was around the same time that I learned about ham radio operators and their important role in severe weather scenarios. You can read more about that here.

A lot has changed since my science project about nearly nonexistent tornadoes.  Social media arrived and impacted all areas of life.  Storm chasing is no exception, as this article by Nebraska Public Media mentions. 

Social media has been used to share events in real time. It can be used by storm chasers to coordinate as they follow a storm, discussed in this article from Accuweather.  

I will be interested to see how further developments in social media and the advances in communication that come with it will continue to affect teams as they observe and track severe weather.  

Comments

  1. Natalie StansburyOctober 7, 2023 at 9:47 AM

    I find it interesting, as mentioned in the second article, that veteran storm chasers are growing concerned with the new wave of social media in storm-chasing. Are you in it for the clicks or for the scientific data? I do wonder though, even if they are in it for the clicks, aren't they still offering up something good for science? Perhaps this might be the classic case of the old timer versus the new "kid?"

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  2. Samantha MatherneOctober 7, 2023 at 6:32 PM

    I think a great part of social media allowing storm chasing to be shared in real time from anywhere to anywhere is the accessibility of the news to those in the storm's path. The area of southeast Louisiana where I live is in/near Dixie Alley (depending on the map you consult), and we get occasional tornadoes from thunderstorms. During hurricanes, tornadoes are more prevalent, and the most up-to-date information possible can be life-changing. Today, people don't have to sit in front of the tv or radio to hear how a tornado is traveling. They can be anywhere and know thanks to smartphones and social media due to storm chasers and more advanced radar technology.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anna V.October 10, 2023 at 3:14 PM

    It is incredible how far the technology has come, and wow! That's intense, and scary. Did you actually see a tornado? The phone alerts must be literal life savers for people. I remember hearing a few radio alerts for tornado watches. In fact, I remember exactly where I was driving when I heard the last one because they are so unusual here. Phone alerts work well, because there were some severe thunderstorm alerts that came through and I can text family and let them know

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