1. Social Media & the NWS Pat Spoden, Chris Noles & Christine Wielgos

2. Why That is the way the world is moving –More information from many sources –We need to reach more people Twitter – 175 Million registered users (last Sep) Facebook – 500 Million users (150 M in U.S.)

3. Why A group in Evansville started #tristatewx Monitoring this group during snowstorms earlier this year gave us a lot of information. –Reduced our need to call into the area to get information

4. Quality Questions Since these are public postings, they are self-correcting. People want to be followed and respected. Bad reports will hurt your integrity, thus followers. This is different than someone calling our office with a bad report – no repercussion

5. Expansion We have expanded this to: –#nwspah –Plus another reserved for spotters Results –Over 60 tweets with just rain (March 14) –Hundreds with snow

6. Waiting to see… How this will work with severe (or near severe) weather –Public usually does not know severe criteria Still expect many more reports than we currently receive

7. Future NWS PAH Facebook by the end of April? –Some folks monitor Facebook through their own account. –Continue to monitor Twitter Will we have our own “tweets”?