University of Texas at Arlington - Crowdsourcing at the West ......National Weather Service West...

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

Crowdsourcing at the West Gulf River Forecast Center Gregory Waller – Service Coordination Hydrologist

NWS - West Gulf River Forecast Center

Outline • WGRFC’s use of social media • NWS and apps • NSSL • mPing

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

•WGRFC and Social Media •Facebook •Twitter •NWSChat •YouTube (not utilized at this time

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

•Facebook •4447 “Likes” (06/04/15) •Content depends on the current hydro •More educational during drought •More impact driven during floods •Not the best venue to gather information

•Images created for FB can easily be shared on Twitter

Example of image posted to Facebook

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

•Twitter •865 Followers (06/04/15) •Using image helps get around 140 character limit •Easier to mine for data

• Utilize hashtags • #flood, #txflood

•Use Tweetdeck to monitor

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

•NWS and apps •NWS Policy (do not develop apps) •NSSL

• mPing • http://mping.nssl.noaa.gov/

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

•Coordination with the NSSL folks (NSSL is on Twitter) •Would love to have us get more flood/water reports

•App is fairly user friendly • Allow phone to use location • Select Report Type • Flood

• (not for ice jam flooding)

•Flooding, like wind damage, has a qualitative severity scale and we provide descriptive examples of what you might see. For our purposes, “flooding” refers to flooding due to recent storms, not due to river flooding that results from ice flows that obstruct the river channel often in Spring.

National Weather Service West Gulf River Forecast Center

NWSWestGulf @NWSWGRFC http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr

•I think this is the avenue we (WGRFC) will take…

•Questions?

•Thank You

•Gregory Waller •Service Coordination Hydrologist •WGRFC •greg.waller@noaa.gov