Many of you know that one factor that may have affected the recent presidential election is the number of fake news stories that were sent out via social media like Facebook. This week has been an example of a related issue, fake weather news. My Facebook feed has been buzzing the last few days about the potential for snow or other wintry weather in parts of the Southeast this coming weekend. Many of these stories are presented by people with no experience in weather forecasting. For example, one prediction of a “blizzard” in central Georgia was based on a single model run hyped by a minister of music down in Dublin GA, someone who has no experience in meteorology and has no credibility in forecasting.
Don’t believe the weather hype that is showing up on Facebook and other social media. While there is a likelihood of some winter weather, including ice or snow, it is still too early to predict definitively where the storm will go and what the precipitation type and amount (if any) will be. Your best bet is to follow a professional and competent source of weather forecasts such as the National Weather Service or one of the commercial companies like The Weather Channel, AccuWeather, or Intellicast. There are other forecasters out there with meteorology degrees and experience in forecasting winter weather as well, but you need to know their background and trustworthiness before you can believe what they say. And any forecast of snow more than a few days in advance is just going to be hype, because it depends so much on storm path and local conditions that are evolving over time.
Here are some good articles about what the forecast is likely to be and the bad impacts of social “media-rology” from my trusted sources:
Athens GA Weather is run by present and past atmospheric science students from the University of Georgia. Today Matt Daniel (now a broadcast meteorologist from Macon) has a discussion about what is likely to happen this weekend at https://www.athensgaweather.com/athens-ga-weather-wednesday-january-4-2017/.
Chris Tomer, a former meteorology student of mine who is now a television meteorologist in Denver, offers this article about fake weather news at https://kdvr.com/2017/01/03/beware-fake-weather-news/.
Chris Robbins, a former National Weather Service employee and private forecaster, describes the problems with snow hype and how hard it is to make an accurate snow forecast at https://www.iweathernet.com/tips/beware-snowfall-accumulation-screenshots-many-days-advance.
Marshall Shepherd writes about fake weather news in Forbes at https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/01/03/some-viral-weather-forecasts-are-fake-news-2-reasons-they-must-be-stopped-now/#19b0305f5197.
And check out the National Weather Service infographic below for more information on social media and winter weather.
