Social Media and the Weather

When I was a kid, I always dreamed to be a weatherman.  I used to keep track of the weather in my hometown of Cranston, RI writing down the high and low temperature and the weather conditions every day. I got my information from the good ol' Providence Journal.   I used to marvel at thunderstorms and admired the how high and mighty thunderstorm clouds were.  Of course, in Rhode Island you do not get the severe thunderstorms that the Midwest and South get, but the storms were nasty enough.  I also was intrigued by the Blizzard of 1978.  All snowstorms from that point forward was measured against that great storm.    There was no Weather Channel then or Facebook, just the television news and newspaper.  So you really didn't know how severe that storm was going to be until it happened. 

I was thinking of going to school for meteorology, but the only school in the area was in Vermont and I was not about to go to school in northern Vermont.  People in Rhode Island though Vermont was somewhere near Alaska.  So I settled for Computer Engineering while maintaining an avid interest in weather.

Later on in my life, I experienced my first hurricane, Hurricane Bob in 1991.  Hurricanes are a different puppy compared to Blizzards.  What was really amazing was the preparation for such a storm.  The technology was a little better then.  We had the Weather Channel but no real internet.  Bob was a pretty intense storm in Rhode Island.  The Hurricane Barrier in Providence got activated which is worth seeing.      There were trees down everywhere after the storm and we did not have power for a few days.  The only way you knew about your friends or family status was when the phone lines were finally on-line.  Again no real internet access or Facebook then.

Now comes 2011 and one of the most imminent hurricanes threats to New England in over 20 years.  But boy are things different from a preparation perspective and how we all communicate.   With social media, the game is totally different.  I am getting up to the minute updates via Twitter and Facebook on my smartphone.  For example, I just found out we are now in a hurricane warning in Massachusetts and Rhode Island from you guessed it, from my Facebook feed on my HTC Incredible Droid smartphone.   I will be able to get the latest on the storm, stay in contact with friends, and perhaps even avoid danger knowing if the worst part of the storm is hitting my area.   The Weather Channel has a live Facebook chat for the public to answer any questions they have.  Wished we had that in 1991!

Think about it, you lose power, you can still use your smartphone and the social media sites.  One recommendation is to keep your smartphone connected to a power source as much as possible during the storm in case power is lost.   So hope to see my friends and family online during the storm.  Please no Farmville requests!  It is pretty amazing how far social media has taken us.  It may save some lives this weekend in New England... Stay safe!