Send Local Severe Weather Reports to the National Weather Service Via Twitter

Are you an amateur meteorologist? Now you can easily tweet your local real-time severe weather reports to the National Weather Service using the micro-blogging platform Twitter. Individuals can tweet weather updates from computers and phones, providing valuable information about severe weather to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS).

Data submitted through Twitter Storm Reports is especially valuable because it is geographical: geotagging identifies the user's exact location. Geotagging allows the NWS to pinpoint critical weather data that may need to be passed on to Emergency Management partners and media.

Geotagging is a feature in Twitter that allows third-party developers to access geographic information about where individual tweets initiate. As a privacy concern, Twitter requires developers to reveal that they use the service.

Your exact location will not appear in your tweets if you enable geotagging: that information is only available to third-parties such as the NWS who have API-enabled programming. When you tweet from your phone, the geotag will pinpoint that location; when you tweet from your home computer, the geotag will indicate that location to the NWS.

You can continue to use Twitter applications like TweetDeck, HootSuite, Digsby, TwitPic, TwitThis, etc., to submit Twitter Storm Reports.

Ready to get started? First, you must have a Twitter account. Sign up here. Go to the settings page and under Location settings, check the box beside "Enable Geotagging." Click Save. To access settings from your mobile device, use this link.

Then, simply submit severe local weather reports to the NWS using this hashtag format: #wxreport . Here is an example: #wxreport severe thunderstorm with local flooding.

Or, if you do not want to enable geotags on your Twitter account, tweet your report using this format: #wxreport WW WW .

"Your location" can be:
~ an address: WW 123 Anystreet, IA WW
~ an airport three digit code: WW ATL WW
~ a zip code: WW 36875 WW
~ a city or town: WW Baltimore, MD WW,
~ a region: WW Florida Keys WW
~ a latitude/longitude geocode: WW 32°36'N, 85° 30'W WW
~ a street intersection: WW 4th St and Broad St, Richmond, VA WW

Here is the same example without enabling geotagging in your Twitter account: #wxreport WW 36875 WW severe thunderstorm with local flooding.

You may want to take some severe weather photos and tweet those using the same hashtag through TwitPic. You can also search for weather posts using the search function in Twitter to get real-time weather information.

Twitter Storm Reports is one way to use social networking to provide usable data to the National Weather Service about severe weather in your local area. You will be assisting your local Emergency Management, media, and dedicated weather spotters with critical information about changing or dangerous conditions. If you enjoy watching the weather, add Twitter Storm Reporting to your micro-blogging today.

More information:
National Weather Service Twitter Storm Reports
Twitter Settings Page (log into Twitter first)
Twitter Settings from your mobile device
Geotagging on Twitter
The author's Twitter page
Seven Apps to Optimize Twitter
Seven More Apps to Optimize Twitter