Deciphering Weather Information in the complex and ever-changing world of Social Media
Zach Sharpe
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04/09/2019
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Zach Sharpe, one of the rising stars in weather social media, has been storm chasing for over 10 years and works year-round as a Storm Chaser for KCCI Television Des Moines. He has covered several tornadoes, historic blizzards with thundersnow and a hurricane live on KCCI. He also serves as the President of the Iowa Storm Chasing Network. He has appeared on The Discovery Channel, Fox News, and featured in the Red Bull Television Series "Heart and Hands: Beyond the Job." Zach is passionate about the dissemination of real time and accurate weather information without allowing shares, likes, or hype to influence a forecast. Please join Zach and special guests as he takes you into the world of social media/ online marketing, and explains how positive and accurate commutation of weather hazards can truly make a difference in your community.
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- [00:00:00.326](audience applauds)
- [00:00:05.143](metal clanks)
- [00:00:10.585](futuristic, mysterious music)
- [00:02:28.750]So as you can see, the choice for digital media
- [00:02:31.360]is gonna be made for us, not because of what we want and do
- [00:02:34.550]so a few of those statistics, that's from 2018.
- [00:02:38.980]That's just recent, that's just last year.
- [00:02:41.180]A lot of those, millennials would rather lose
- [00:02:43.740]their sense of smell than their device.
- [00:02:46.510]That actually surprises me because I would rather smell.
- [00:02:49.130]Now on some days, if it's sweaty, I'd probably not.
- [00:02:52.230]But a little bit about me.
- [00:02:53.150]So I graduated from Norwalk High School
- [00:02:54.700]which is a suburb of Des Moines, 2011.
- [00:02:57.334]I went off to Iowa State University to study meteorology
- [00:02:59.440]which is how I got my passion.
- [00:03:00.890]If I back up a little bit, I lived through a tornado
- [00:03:04.056]or I lived through two.
- [00:03:05.610]It was a twister that developed, dissipated,
- [00:03:08.490]put its energy back into a second tornado,
- [00:03:10.530]and moved through the same area again
- [00:03:12.130]so we went through two tornadoes.
- [00:03:14.050]And living through that, that was quite interesting.
- [00:03:17.380]I actually wanted to figure out why tornadoes formed
- [00:03:20.130]so I decided to switch my passion
- [00:03:22.200]from landscape architect to meteorology.
- [00:03:25.900]So I went off to Iowa State University to study meteorology
- [00:03:29.060]and that's when I met Ben.
- [00:03:30.590]So Ben and I met through KCCI
- [00:03:33.450]which is the CBS affiliate in Des Moines
- [00:03:36.070]and Ben at the time was doing storm chasing for KCCI
- [00:03:38.730]and I was interning and job shadowing
- [00:03:41.303]with the meteorologists down there and eventually,
- [00:03:44.422]Ben introduced himself to me as a member of Twist X
- [00:03:46.800]and he was looking for people to help him storm chase.
- [00:03:48.730]So Ben and I started chasing in the spring of 2013
- [00:03:53.000]and that's when we started to develop some new concepts
- [00:03:55.760]for Iowa's storm chasing network.
- [00:03:56.940]Ben had already been doing Iowa's storm chasing network
- [00:03:59.320]with a gentleman in eastern Iowa and at that time,
- [00:04:02.940]we had a couple thousand followers
- [00:04:04.520]so to be blogging about the weather
- [00:04:06.730]is basically how this thing sort of developed.
- [00:04:08.800]So at that time back in 2013, I'm jumping back then,
- [00:04:13.010]a lot of people weren't using social media for weather.
- [00:04:15.340]At that time, it was mainly hey,
- [00:04:16.920]this is what I ate for dinner,
- [00:04:18.420]this is what I'm doing this weekend.
- [00:04:20.510]So we decided to start blogging about the weather
- [00:04:22.570]so we had a website called IowaChase.com.
- [00:04:24.220]We still have that and we were sharing those forecasts
- [00:04:27.060]over to our Facebook page and so eventually,
- [00:04:29.880]people caught on that hey, I can get my forecasts 24/7.
- [00:04:33.310]I don't have to wait for the five, six, nine,
- [00:04:35.190]and 10 o'clock news anymore.
- [00:04:36.860]And so that idea sort of continued to snowball and grow.
- [00:04:40.930]Back at 2013, we got 2,000 followers
- [00:04:43.120]and as of today, we have over 200,000 followers on Facebook
- [00:04:46.920]and on Twitter, actually my next slide here,
- [00:04:50.159]I'll show it to you those numbers.
- [00:04:51.517]So we have 200,000 followers on Facebook.
- [00:04:52.380]We have almost 17,000 on Twitter.
- [00:04:55.340]Instagram has largely developed in the last year
- [00:04:58.432]and now over at 13,000 followers.
- [00:04:59.610]So if you add all those up, we're quickly approaching
- [00:05:01.870]250,000 followers across all of our social platforms.
- [00:05:05.660]So basically, when I started to do this,
- [00:05:08.230]doing this blogging, talking about the forecast,
- [00:05:10.510]showing Ben's video on our social media accounts,
- [00:05:15.165]it sort of developed into the basically
- [00:05:16.550]how do we take this further?
- [00:05:18.320]And so we basically developed an online news organization,
- [00:05:21.800]bringing you the latest weather forecast around the clock
- [00:05:24.380]online which as you saw in that video,
- [00:05:26.910]the average attention span of the goldfish was eight seconds
- [00:05:29.960]and because of technology, the average attention span
- [00:05:32.210]of a human now is seven seconds.
- [00:05:33.730]So how do we captivate those audiences and basically
- [00:05:36.580]give them information that they want?
- [00:05:38.910]So we threw a poll out on our social media pages
- [00:05:42.440]to sort of basically show some statistics behind this.
- [00:05:45.560]So we polled 2,500 people.
- [00:05:47.516]That's how many people actually answered our survey.
- [00:05:49.250]And we put those on Facebook and Twitter.
- [00:05:50.500]So obviously, the people that are following us
- [00:05:52.430]are the ones that are gonna be sort of social media biased
- [00:05:55.320]because that's how we got up to them.
- [00:05:57.477]So we don't have the TV network
- [00:05:59.030]so honestly it's sort of rather impressive
- [00:06:01.030]for not having a TV network,
- [00:06:03.539]we have almost 200,000 followers from Facebook.
- [00:06:05.398]But the largest age group that answered our poll
- [00:06:07.540]was basically between 35 and 64-year-olds
- [00:06:10.290]which is you look at our analytics on Facebook,
- [00:06:14.010]that is very comparable to what we have.
- [00:06:16.019]The number one gender that follows us on Facebook
- [00:06:19.920]is women and right behind, 32%, men.
- [00:06:23.160]So as you can see, what's been interesting
- [00:06:26.040]about doing this over the last years,
- [00:06:28.191]men really don't care about
- [00:06:29.610]what's gonna happen in the forecast.
- [00:06:30.860]Women are more interested,
- [00:06:32.710]I would imagine because it's the same questions
- [00:06:34.580]my mom throws at me is will my hair get messed up today?
- [00:06:38.515]That's probably one of the reasons why.
- [00:06:40.820]As you can see, that's really comparable
- [00:06:42.400]to our demographics on our Facebook page.
- [00:06:44.140]So the very first question that we asked was
- [00:06:46.750]how did you get the forecast
- [00:06:47.960]or how often do you check the forecast?
- [00:06:49.910]And basically as you can see,
- [00:06:51.370]75% of people say they check the forecast every day
- [00:06:53.990]and it dwindles down to a few times a week
- [00:06:56.520]to a couple times a week.
- [00:06:58.150]So we're looking at people that check the forecast daily
- [00:07:00.450]and as I can imagine, almost every time
- [00:07:02.150]as you introduce yourself, it's like wow,
- [00:07:03.740]beautiful weather out today as you heard Ken introduced.
- [00:07:06.830]So the weather always comes up at the beginning
- [00:07:08.660]of the conversation so that's probably why,
- [00:07:10.730]because people check the forecast out daily.
- [00:07:12.780]Now second question we asked is when you check
- [00:07:14.850]the weather forecast, where's the first place you go?
- [00:07:17.230]So the options were at TV channel, the newspaper,
- [00:07:20.880]social media, a weather website, or a weather app
- [00:07:25.110]and as you can see there, we had 65% of people
- [00:07:28.580]said they get their weather information from a weather app
- [00:07:31.380]and as you can see, if you're in this room
- [00:07:34.020]and work for a TV channel, it quickly dwindles down
- [00:07:37.870]to 10% of people say they get their weather information
- [00:07:40.520]from TV and obviously, 0% said newspaper
- [00:07:42.781]because newspaper is a dying form of media.
- [00:07:46.562]So everything's switching to the digital side
- [00:07:49.440]but what's happening now is we're seeing cable subscriptions
- [00:07:51.710]quickly dwindle as well because cable's so expensive.
- [00:07:54.520]People are buying Netflix, Hulu, internet-based
- [00:07:57.970]subscriptions for TV because they're a lot cheaper.
- [00:08:00.610]You can basically ala carte pay what you want.
- [00:08:03.400]So we're starting to see TV cable subscriptions dwindle
- [00:08:05.850]so that's scaring the cable companies out there now.
- [00:08:08.870]Taking it into consideration that 70% of people
- [00:08:11.300]get their information from a weather app
- [00:08:13.230]and knowing that 7% attention span rate,
- [00:08:15.981]people want it fast basically.
- [00:08:18.240]They don't want to wait but how can you get
- [00:08:21.220]proper weather information from a weather app.
- [00:08:23.210]As you can see on this screen here,
- [00:08:24.690]you can get a temperature, if it's going to rain,
- [00:08:27.938]when it will rain, but the problem is as soon as
- [00:08:31.230]your weather app shows a little snow icon,
- [00:08:33.429]how do you know how much snow, what time will it snow,
- [00:08:36.470]but that's the problem.
- [00:08:37.390]People don't take the time to figure it out
- [00:08:39.200]because they want it fast, they don't want to wait,
- [00:08:41.763]and they want to have their seven second attention span.
- [00:08:43.220]So how do they get the information?
- [00:08:44.670]Well, they go onto social media
- [00:08:47.940]and get that weather information
- [00:08:49.110]because as you saw, more people get their news
- [00:08:51.078]from online now compared to other sources that they used to.
- [00:08:55.860]So the next question is if you check the weather
- [00:08:57.670]on a weather website, so we're thinking like Weather.com
- [00:09:00.338]or Noah.gov, that type of thing,
- [00:09:03.640]which one are the more following
- [00:09:05.100]that you are likely to check it from?
- [00:09:06.470]So obviously, we threw local news on there.
- [00:09:08.890]National weather affiliates, whether it's Weather Nation
- [00:09:11.410]or Weather Channel or AccuWeather
- [00:09:13.520]and then basically a national TV network
- [00:09:16.230]so we were thinking sometimes people go to like
- [00:09:18.990]CNN or Fox News or other sources.
- [00:09:21.490]So obviously underneath other category,
- [00:09:23.810]you would have to consider us as an hobbyist
- [00:09:26.520]type weather page since we're not local news.
- [00:09:29.150]So that's sort of the breakdown.
- [00:09:30.250]It shows you the number two sources for weather information
- [00:09:33.430]online are local news and obviously
- [00:09:35.740]the local weather service so that's a good sign already
- [00:09:37.383]that people are using a reliable source
- [00:09:39.680]in those two places there.
- [00:09:41.447]The only thing I will say about national news,
- [00:09:43.730]obviously they're forecasting for a whole entire country.
- [00:09:46.250]You can't get that detailed forecast as a local news person
- [00:09:49.538]or the national weather service can give you.
- [00:09:53.300]As I want to reiterate there,
- [00:09:54.750]a little under 20% of the people are
- [00:09:57.386]getting their weather information from a website.
- [00:09:58.850]So going back to that first question,
- [00:10:00.686]where do you receive your weather information?
- [00:10:02.120]A little under 20% of people are getting it
- [00:10:04.270]from the weather website.
- [00:10:09.350]Oh my god, that's a tornado.
- [00:10:11.428]Get in the basement.
- [00:10:12.949](child cries)
- [00:10:15.085]Go get in the basement now.
- [00:10:17.146](children crying)
- [00:10:19.420]So I see her little one wanted to leave the house
- [00:10:21.420]but her mom said go to the basement
- [00:10:22.550]so that lasted us to our next question.
- [00:10:24.570]If severe weather is imminent,
- [00:10:26.010]how do you receive your watches or warnings?
- [00:10:27.740]Thinking a lot of people watch TV.
- [00:10:29.320]Surprisingly, a good majority of people, almost 70%
- [00:10:33.397]of people said they get their weather watches and warnings
- [00:10:35.640]from a weather app once again.
- [00:10:37.660]So that's actually quite shocking to me
- [00:10:39.020]when I'm doing this study to try to figure out
- [00:10:40.800]where do people get their weather information
- [00:10:42.360]and you're telling me, once again,
- [00:10:43.480]we're going back to a weather app
- [00:10:45.747]so you're not getting that personalized data
- [00:10:46.580]that you would as on TV.
- [00:10:47.700]Now obviously, not to discount.
- [00:10:49.660]Obviously, people are still going to TV watch
- [00:10:51.700]their live coverage but their first source
- [00:10:53.730]of information is a weather app.
- [00:10:57.200]I thought this was quite comparable.
- [00:10:59.510]It was shared on Facebook so it must be true.
- [00:11:02.140]That's the problem with a lot of the things as Ken said.
- [00:11:03.930]We're already starting to see rumors about a big potential
- [00:11:05.850]blizzard next week which I'll highlight here in a second.
- [00:11:08.400]So the fifth question I asked,
- [00:11:09.540]if you see weather posts on social media today
- [00:11:12.200]that shows something that is likely to impact you
- [00:11:14.240]or someone that you know, how likely are you to share it?
- [00:11:17.420]As you can see there, we're looking over,
- [00:11:21.120]obviously with very likely,
- [00:11:23.210]we're already at almost 50% likely or 30%.
- [00:11:26.170]So 75% of people are likely or very likely
- [00:11:29.480]to share that post from social media
- [00:11:31.790]over to their page to let people know.
- [00:11:33.920]The problem is how do you know what's reliable
- [00:11:36.310]and what's not reliable because if you see something
- [00:11:37.990]on Facebook that looks like it's going to impact you,
- [00:11:40.910]obviously you're gonna share it and let people know
- [00:11:42.740]hey look, there's a big snowstorm coming on Thursday.
- [00:11:45.190]Be on the lookout.
- [00:11:47.020]So a little bit more about the social media world.
- [00:11:49.570]Two-thirds of people that we polled
- [00:11:52.110]said they would share social media posts
- [00:11:53.570]if it impacted someone they knew.
- [00:11:55.570]When asked when sharing weather related posts
- [00:11:58.010]on social media and we asked if they checked the source
- [00:12:00.510]before sharing, now I want to know how honest
- [00:12:03.890]people were with this one but 84% of the people
- [00:12:07.160]said they do check the source before they share it.
- [00:12:10.730]Obviously, when I'm watching how
- [00:12:13.119]trends have been over lately,
- [00:12:14.810]I would question that number but obviously,
- [00:12:16.363]that still leaves 16% of people saying
- [00:12:18.930]they don't check the source where it comes from
- [00:12:20.900]which is still a very big percentage.
- [00:12:23.100]Obviously, you want to check the source before sharing it.
- [00:12:25.770]So obviously when we're talking about if the source
- [00:12:27.750]is reliable or not, I'm gonna show some examples here
- [00:12:30.300]and we're talk about if they're reliable or not.
- [00:12:31.760]So this is the first example.
- [00:12:33.730]Obviously, I'm gonna show stuff from my home state of Iowa
- [00:12:35.990]that I have to deal with around there.
- [00:12:38.250]So this came from the source talking about
- [00:12:40.940]a March 8th through 11th snow potential.
- [00:12:44.130]Once again, as I point out, please take the snow totals
- [00:12:47.127]with a grain of salt but it does appear
- [00:12:48.140]that we have a major storm that
- [00:12:50.102]is likely to impact our region.
- [00:12:51.170]Notice the date that this was posted.
- [00:12:53.452]This was posted March 2nd and we're already talking about
- [00:12:56.420]a forecast for March 8th through 11th.
- [00:12:59.640]We're already a week out there.
- [00:13:01.420]As a lot of people would like to remind us,
- [00:13:03.560]we can't even get the forecast right tomorrow
- [00:13:05.450]so how are we supposed to get the forecast right
- [00:13:07.610]seven days out?
- [00:13:08.950]So once again, this is not a reliable source.
- [00:13:11.920]So obviously, it's okay to talk about storm system
- [00:13:14.810]but what I would have done if I wanted to
- [00:13:17.010]hype this system up, about a week out,
- [00:13:19.600]I would have showed an overall trend.
- [00:13:21.360]I would have probably showed where
- [00:13:23.338]the low was going to be tracking.
- [00:13:24.171]I may show basically a forecasted radar output
- [00:13:28.010]but I wouldn't actually show snowfall totals.
- [00:13:29.870]If you see snowfall totals a week out,
- [00:13:32.170]people are just trying to get click bait.
- [00:13:34.810]Obviously, clicking at that, that has 4,500 shares.
- [00:13:38.370]So that went quite viral on social media.
- [00:13:41.350]Once again, I know a lot of people
- [00:13:43.160]here in Nebraska like this page
- [00:13:46.040]called METEOROLOGISTS, all in capital letters.
- [00:13:48.020]Obviously they have to be reliable, right?
- [00:13:51.050]No.
- [00:13:53.020]Once again, this is just basically all red cap letters.
- [00:13:56.900]They're talking about a storm system
- [00:13:58.540]that is for two systems combined.
- [00:14:00.280]If you have to combine two storm systems
- [00:14:02.200]to get snowfall output like this,
- [00:14:04.130]obviously you're just trying to find the scary pictures
- [00:14:07.600]online to show hey look, we're going to get what is that,
- [00:14:09.860]28 inches across central Nebraska?
- [00:14:11.820]Oh my goodness.
- [00:14:13.678]So once again, if you see stuff like that
- [00:14:14.511]where they're talking about a week out,
- [00:14:16.090]it's multiple storm systems combined into one
- [00:14:18.430]so that way they can get the biggest amount of snowfall
- [00:14:20.950]potential on the map and if you see a lot of capital letters
- [00:14:24.880]and whatnot, it's probably not reliable.
- [00:14:28.430]So that's what I was talking about here.
- [00:14:30.300]If someone is talking about a storm
- [00:14:32.790]and showing detailed forecast maps five plus days out,
- [00:14:35.550]don't believe it.
- [00:14:37.096]That's the number one thing to look at.
- [00:14:37.929]So if you're seeing hey this is how much rain's gonna fall
- [00:14:40.460]in the next eight to 10 days,
- [00:14:42.610]you can tell overall trends, how the models are trending,
- [00:14:47.088]but once again if you're showing detailed forecasts
- [00:14:48.640]because that's the problem.
- [00:14:49.911]If I show here in Lincoln, two weeks out
- [00:14:52.500]we're looking at 4.6 inches of rain,
- [00:14:56.210]that's really detailed for being over a week out.
- [00:14:59.570]If the map totals for multiple storms,
- [00:15:01.620]that is likely posted that way to create
- [00:15:03.810]the scary looking map as I talked about
- [00:15:05.530]so if you see they say hey, you know,
- [00:15:07.670]take these forecasts with a grain of salt
- [00:15:09.730]for two systems combined into one,
- [00:15:12.340]that's also likely something to create forecast hype.
- [00:15:16.560]And as I mentioned, if the description's
- [00:15:18.429]all in all caps with red text
- [00:15:20.010]and it seems like they're yelling at you,
- [00:15:21.670]obviously, the prepare for a storm of epic proportions,
- [00:15:25.600]it's also likely not a credible source.
- [00:15:27.520]Now the weather service will use a harsh warning like that
- [00:15:29.880]at times to make sure, and they only use it
- [00:15:32.770]when it's actually warranted.
- [00:15:33.970]So if they're talking about flooding of epic proportions,
- [00:15:36.940]obviously if they're using that verbiage,
- [00:15:38.610]it's because it's needed.
- [00:15:40.710]But the Weather Service is grounded,
- [00:15:42.210]they're very down to earth and they're gonna tell you
- [00:15:44.220]exactly what to expect.
- [00:15:46.016]I like this quote.
- [00:15:47.250]I saw this the other day.
- [00:15:48.840]So my background, I guess I skipped over that a little bit,.
- [00:15:52.360]After studying meteorology, I decided to,
- [00:15:54.480]after seeing how all this blossomed
- [00:15:56.280]and realizing that the world is going to get
- [00:15:58.480]even more tangible than we are now,
- [00:16:00.920]I switched over to marketing and got my emphasis
- [00:16:02.960]on digital marketing so right now,
- [00:16:04.450]I work as a digital content specialist
- [00:16:07.420]and this is stuff I live and breathe every day at work.
- [00:16:09.980]But this is one of my favorite marketing quotes out there.
- [00:16:12.460]The truth isn't the truth until people believe you
- [00:16:15.020]and they can't believe you if they don't know
- [00:16:16.870]what you're saying and they can't know what you're saying
- [00:16:19.670]if they don't listen to you and they won't listen to you
- [00:16:22.220]if you're not interesting and you won't be interesting
- [00:16:25.080]unless things are imaginative, original, and freshly.
- [00:16:29.720]And I want to add or so outrageous
- [00:16:30.980]people take it as reality.
- [00:16:33.580]So basically what that's saying is people won't listen
- [00:16:36.170]unless it catches their attention
- [00:16:38.514]and the way to catch people's attention
- [00:16:39.840]is to show something that they're interested in.
- [00:16:42.080]If I showed a snowfall forecast
- [00:16:43.490]that shows one to two inches,
- [00:16:45.825]you're more than likely not going to share it
- [00:16:46.658]because it's one to two inches.
- [00:16:48.367]We'll clear it out the driveway, we'll be fine.
- [00:16:49.700]If I showed you snowfall forecast that shows
- [00:16:51.720]24 to 36 inches, you're gonna be like wow,
- [00:16:53.830]that's the storm of epic proportions
- [00:16:55.820]and you're gonna share that.
- [00:16:57.170]So obviously, that's why people create
- [00:16:59.440]these types of forecast posts out there
- [00:17:01.050]to try to get people to share their post.
- [00:17:03.970]So what is a credible source?
- [00:17:04.867]The National Weather Service
- [00:17:07.090]hands down is a credible source.
- [00:17:08.000]People may be like the Weather Service gets it wrong.
- [00:17:10.780]No one's always right but once again,
- [00:17:13.130]the Weather Service is always 100% a credible source.
- [00:17:16.210]Local news, I will say beware of ratings
- [00:17:18.690]because we've come to a time of year
- [00:17:21.270]that they have sweeps that they try to get.
- [00:17:23.870]Weather sells news so obviously,
- [00:17:25.840]you have to be aware that I wanted to show this
- [00:17:27.850]forecast graphic here because this comes from
- [00:17:29.510]a meteorologist or a station up in Wisconsin
- [00:17:32.760]and this is for this upcoming Thursday.
- [00:17:34.360]This was posted on Thursday so they were talking about
- [00:17:36.870]a week out so once again we're at the week out phrase
- [00:17:39.510]but if you notice on there, it's a strong storm.
- [00:17:42.253]I think that wordage is a little harsh for being a week out.
- [00:17:46.200]I think obviously you could have showed the current trend
- [00:17:49.600]which is find but the verbiage on there,
- [00:17:51.460]showing strong storm, is obviously something
- [00:17:54.080]that I would have probably removed and said
- [00:17:55.540]potential storm next week.
- [00:17:57.650]So as you can see, the verbiage could be used differently
- [00:17:59.810]and still get the same point across.
- [00:18:02.290]Pages that don't use knowledge and cherry pick
- [00:18:06.460]one model output is obviously not a credible source
- [00:18:09.600]but if you find a page that shows both models,
- [00:18:12.380]that's what I do.
- [00:18:13.420]So I'm gonna use that as an example.
- [00:18:15.410]When I show the forecast, I'll show all the different models
- [00:18:17.820]and say hey, this is what the GFS is showing,
- [00:18:20.230]this is what the European model is showing,
- [00:18:22.022]if we're close enough, I'll say hey this is what the NAM
- [00:18:25.899]is showing and so that way if there's some
- [00:18:27.020]forecast differences in between models,
- [00:18:28.950]people understand that better than showing
- [00:18:31.030]one forecast model and saying hey,
- [00:18:32.860]you showed one forecast model
- [00:18:34.140]and that showed 12.6 inches here in Lincoln
- [00:18:36.780]but if I showed three different forecast models
- [00:18:38.657]and said hey, one shows four inches here,
- [00:18:40.870]one also shows eight inches, one also shows two inches,
- [00:18:43.650]people say hey, okay you know what,
- [00:18:45.100]there's some variability in the forecast right now.
- [00:18:47.800]I'll keep an eye on it.
- [00:18:50.580]So same deal here.
- [00:18:53.150]I wanted to show what the National Weather Service did.
- [00:18:54.740]So they also posted this on Thursday as well
- [00:18:56.916]but they talked about could make a return to winter
- [00:19:00.200]on Thursday, April 11th.
- [00:19:02.510]So using their verbiage, they're more down to earth,
- [00:19:04.680]once again talking about that but once again,
- [00:19:06.680]they didn't really get into the hype but more than likely,
- [00:19:10.543]they posted this on Thursday just simply because
- [00:19:11.970]it's more likely their arm is already being twisted
- [00:19:13.600]by these social media posts out there,
- [00:19:15.890]floating around talking about blizzard of epic proportions.
- [00:19:20.160]So once again, social media is a very powerful tool
- [00:19:22.640]but there are proper way of using it.
- [00:19:26.920]I got a phone call this morning
- [00:19:28.520]from one of our oldest customers.
- [00:19:30.840]He fired us after 20 years.
- [00:19:33.820]He fired us, said he didn't know us anymore.
- [00:19:39.235]I think I know why.
- [00:19:41.515]We used to do business with a handshake, face to face.
- [00:19:44.480]Now it's a phone call and a fax
- [00:19:47.310]and that came with another fax probably.
- [00:19:51.660]Well folks, some things have changed.
- [00:19:56.720]That's why we're gonna set out
- [00:19:58.866]and face to face chat with every customer we have.
- [00:20:04.415]But Ben, that's got to be over 200 cities.
- [00:20:06.056]Don't care.
- [00:20:08.459]If you don't have a business
- [00:20:09.754]that still believes personal service
- [00:20:10.660]deserves a lot more personal service, welcome to United.
- [00:20:15.243]That's the way we've been doing business for over 60 years.
- [00:20:19.190]Ben, where are you going?
- [00:20:20.980]To the customer who fired us this morning.
- [00:20:24.584]United.
- [00:20:27.230]So one of the things that sets us apart
- [00:20:28.700]as I was storm chasing is actually engaging
- [00:20:31.100]with all of our followers.
- [00:20:32.210]The problem is people want answers
- [00:20:34.830]and when our followers, we treat them like we would treat
- [00:20:38.810]them as we were having a conversation face to face.
- [00:20:40.750]So we get lots of questions.
- [00:20:42.170]As you can imagine, 200,000 followers,
- [00:20:43.820]we get a lot of questions but we almost answer
- [00:20:47.240]every single one out there because
- [00:20:49.440]someone has a question, and that question's
- [00:20:51.197]not a stupid question because obviously,
- [00:20:53.870]they have a question.
- [00:20:55.500]We do business sort of the old way
- [00:20:57.110]and we make sure we answer every question
- [00:21:00.060]'cause that's the problem with digital nowadays.
- [00:21:01.620]A lot of us sit behind a computer screen.
- [00:21:03.640]We don't interact with one another.
- [00:21:06.100]So basically we're taking the old school method
- [00:21:07.950]of a handshake and having a face to face conversation
- [00:21:10.310]and just taking it out to a digital platform
- [00:21:12.720]and by doing that, we're answering almost every question
- [00:21:15.100]out there possible and if you see online,
- [00:21:17.610]I'm going to show you here on the right-hand side
- [00:21:20.290]of the screen, this is from our local CBS affiliate.
- [00:21:23.407]I just used them.
- [00:21:24.240]I'm not calling them out or anything.
- [00:21:25.073]But this is a good example.
- [00:21:25.906]A lot of news stations out there have a Facebook page
- [00:21:28.190]and meteorologists have Facebook pages
- [00:21:30.200]but if you notice right there at the bottom,
- [00:21:32.670]this woman has a question about basically the forecast
- [00:21:37.010]or the sirens are going off in Des Moines.
- [00:21:39.600]That question went unanswered.
- [00:21:41.210]Obviously, that person had a question.
- [00:21:43.150]That question was worth answering.
- [00:21:45.030]That person took time out of their day to ask it
- [00:21:47.650]so obviously that question needed to be answered
- [00:21:49.650]so that's why we take the time out of our day
- [00:21:51.130]to make sure we answer every question possible because
- [00:21:53.390]every person has a question that needs to be answered.
- [00:21:56.950]So obviously, those people are following you for a reason.
- [00:21:59.010]Eventually, if you don't want to answer their questions,
- [00:22:00.860]they're gonna disappear because
- [00:22:02.911]they're gonna treat you like you are,
- [00:22:04.480]just imagine if you were gonna have a conversation
- [00:22:06.030]with someone in person and that person
- [00:22:08.110]divided their attention and walked away from you.
- [00:22:10.520]Obviously you're gonna treat that person differently.
- [00:22:12.150]You're gonna be like that person doesn't want to talk to me.
- [00:22:14.599]They treated me with the cold shoulder.
- [00:22:15.432]That's basically what these TV stations
- [00:22:16.900]and meteorologists are doing.
- [00:22:17.810]If they don't answer a question,
- [00:22:18.790]it's basically like you asking a question
- [00:22:20.340]and someone walking away from you.
- [00:22:22.832]So that's the problem with digital media nowadays
- [00:22:24.270]is because we act like we don't have enough time
- [00:22:27.240]to answer these questions.
- [00:22:28.230]Obviously if people are following you,
- [00:22:29.650]they're following you for a reason.
- [00:22:31.250]It takes a lot of time but it's worth it
- [00:22:33.190]and we see that by doing that.
- [00:22:34.700]So obviously, that's what sets us apart
- [00:22:37.080]and I think you'll see a lot of different.
- [00:22:39.120]There's some media out there that
- [00:22:40.830]does a phenomenal job out there.
- [00:22:42.160]They answer every question out there
- [00:22:44.150]but if people are following you,
- [00:22:45.310]it's because they're following you for a reason.
- [00:22:50.769]The Facebook thing has worked out very well.
- [00:22:52.542]I had a critical mask going into this
- [00:22:55.120]and I think the fact is I try to respond to people.
- [00:22:59.020]The thing that I don't understand so many media people,
- [00:23:01.150]they say I've got a Facebook page
- [00:23:02.890]and I've got a Twitter account and they don't respond.
- [00:23:06.693]I don't understand that.
- [00:23:07.710]Broadcasting is a conversation.
- [00:23:11.107]So many news people over the years talked about
- [00:23:12.994]all their audience is idiots.
- [00:23:15.740]They're not idiots, they're our friends.
- [00:23:17.960]They're precious people.
- [00:23:19.530]I gather so much information from these people
- [00:23:22.398]it's just fantastic.
- [00:23:24.063]And I think that engagement is the reason
- [00:23:25.480]the numbers are very high.
- [00:23:27.390]And we can all make warnings.
- [00:23:29.675]Everyone can make warnings.
- [00:23:30.919]This is my Facebook, my page, not the stations'.
- [00:23:32.650]And I do that because I just think it'd work better
- [00:23:35.720]with Facebook at the station.
- [00:23:37.030]Do we want to make warnings?
- [00:23:38.801]This is a long process and we don't know how to fail.
- [00:23:40.653]I don't have time today.
- [00:23:42.270]We use three video within that Facebook page
- [00:23:44.107]so people can watch the live coverage from that.
- [00:23:46.570]It is an incredible source to me,
- [00:23:48.640]getting weather information.
- [00:23:50.478]Not only are we pushing it, we're gathering it.
- [00:23:52.040]And those reports are critical.
- [00:23:54.360]And then on the Twitter side,
- [00:23:57.558]I think the numbers are like what, the 25,000 now.
- [00:24:02.060]The warnings are done manually.
- [00:24:04.130]I don't do automated warnings.
- [00:24:06.051]To me, Twitter page automates stuff and I don't like it.
- [00:24:10.500]If you watch what I did, I can talk,
- [00:24:13.581]there are a lot of things I can't do,
- [00:24:15.300]but I can talk and like tornado emergency, Tuscaloosa.
- [00:24:19.374]I can look my Google search to span Twitter feed.
- [00:24:22.890]Tornado emergency, Tuscaloosa, north.
- [00:24:25.021]Tornado emergency.
- [00:24:28.150]In all caps screaming at people and I think they got that.
- [00:24:32.667]Again, the updates were there from time to time.
- [00:24:39.430]It was hard reading some back.
- [00:24:43.893]It was another great source of reports.
- [00:24:44.940]I respond to people.
- [00:24:47.083]I saw a TV guy the other day, not gonna say his name.
- [00:24:50.170]He said I have 500 followers on Twitter.
- [00:24:55.258]Guess how many people respond?
- [00:24:57.140]Zero.
- [00:24:58.960]What are you telling people?
- [00:25:00.995]You're telling them you're a jerk.
- [00:25:01.828]You demand that they.
- [00:25:05.907](audience cheers)
- [00:25:10.970]Oh boy.
- [00:25:12.040]I'm going down.
- [00:25:13.380]But you're telling them you're gonna listen to what I say
- [00:25:15.950]but I'm not gonna listen to what you have to say
- [00:25:17.996]if you're not important.
- [00:25:18.829]I think it should be the opposite.
- [00:25:20.050]The people have power, not us.
- [00:25:21.410]We are totally powerless and I like it that way.
- [00:25:24.422]So I respond and again, the amazing thing about the social,
- [00:25:28.400]by the way, those are some of the tweets.
- [00:25:32.057]I typed those while I was on the air
- [00:25:35.024]and I thought people would see that and that's important.
- [00:25:38.148]In the days after, this is what I didn't see coming.
- [00:25:40.140]Using those streams to leave coordinating,
- [00:25:44.813]I don't know why me.
- [00:25:47.276]I guess because I had critical math.
- [00:25:48.860]It was a real nice article that Cory Bourbon wrote
- [00:25:51.040]and I got all these people, I don't know.
- [00:25:54.910]I'm just trying to engage people
- [00:25:58.077]but yet I built up all those big numbers
- [00:25:58.910]and I think that Twitter and Facebook were very important.
- [00:26:03.710]All these people had needs.
- [00:26:05.140]There's people in places we've probably never heard of.
- [00:26:08.090]Sawyerville, Hail County.
- [00:26:09.730]The national media, they weren't there.
- [00:26:12.961]Nobody was there.
- [00:26:14.695]Go to the same place in 1994
- [00:26:17.457]during the Palm Sunday outbreak.
- [00:26:19.330]Nobody was there and the needs were just critical
- [00:26:21.680]and it's like nobody was monitoring, it was just chaos.
- [00:26:24.250]If I pushed this out to 8,000 people
- [00:26:26.903]that are engaged and pay attention,
- [00:26:28.360]maybe it'll get attention and it did.
- [00:26:32.336]So that's the thing.
- [00:26:33.336]If anyone didn't know who that was, that's James Finn.
- [00:26:34.790]If you want to know someone who does social media very well,
- [00:26:36.280]go follow James Finn on social media.
- [00:26:38.040]He's like a king and he realized the potential back in 2011.
- [00:26:42.110]That's when that talk was.
- [00:26:43.250]2011, he's already talking about how social media
- [00:26:46.170]can be used for relief efforts.
- [00:26:47.840]So we've seen it time and time again.
- [00:26:50.020]Obviously with 200,000 followers,
- [00:26:52.250]we're covering floods, we're covering blizzards
- [00:26:54.390]that are trapping people on the interstate,
- [00:26:56.200]we get people messaging us saying hey,
- [00:26:57.680]we know so and so who's stuck on highway 20.
- [00:27:00.740]Can you stop by as you're out trying to cover
- [00:27:03.030]this blizzard of epic proportions and help rescue them?
- [00:27:06.500]We've seen it time and time again but obviously,
- [00:27:09.400]that's the problem is the media,
- [00:27:10.723]they're so sparsely thin when they go out
- [00:27:13.650]and cover events but they find not heavily populated areas
- [00:27:16.040]but as James Finn pointed out,
- [00:27:17.370]there's communities that are still being impacted
- [00:27:19.957]but they're small enough that the media
- [00:27:22.295]doesn't spend their time in those communities.
- [00:27:23.240]So obviously, if we engage with our followers,
- [00:27:25.730]they're the ones that tell the story.
- [00:27:27.680]We're simply posting information to get it out there
- [00:27:30.798]and let people know what's going on in our communities
- [00:27:32.010]across the state and even across the Midwest.
- [00:27:34.820]So we have people that follow us
- [00:27:36.840]even though we're an Iowa-based group.
- [00:27:39.346]We have people from eastern Nebraska, southwest Wisconsin.
- [00:27:42.600]We have people all across the Midwest
- [00:27:45.657]that are following us just simply because obviously
- [00:27:47.571]they know what's coming, what moves through
- [00:27:49.110]the state of Iowa will eventually impact them.
- [00:27:52.360]So we're just simply telling the source.
- [00:27:53.660]So we have a lot of user-generated content
- [00:27:55.650]and that's the number one thing that helps basically
- [00:27:58.420]drive our traffic online by telling your guys' story
- [00:28:01.480]just through our Facebook pages.
- [00:28:03.870]My final thoughts are make sure you check your sources.
- [00:28:06.130]If you think one seems a little wonky,
- [00:28:09.586]if I see a forecast out there that says 26 to 30 inches
- [00:28:11.210]of snow, go check the National Weather Service,
- [00:28:13.660]go check your local news, go check other hobbyist
- [00:28:16.320]weather pages and create your own forecast
- [00:28:19.020]based off that data that you find because obviously,
- [00:28:21.680]if you have a gut feeling that the forecast
- [00:28:23.670]may be a little bit hyped, more than likely
- [00:28:26.158]it probably is hyped and honestly,
- [00:28:27.290]the number one thing I'm gonna say
- [00:28:28.510]is thing before you share.
- [00:28:29.630]If you think it's hyped, don't share it.
- [00:28:32.160]That's obviously what's gonna create hype out there.
- [00:28:34.700]One of my other questions I didn't include
- [00:28:36.020]in this presentation that I did ask
- [00:28:37.400]if people thought the forecast was hyped.
- [00:28:39.490]I had three answers, I had yes, no, and I had no opinion.
- [00:28:43.579]33% of people said that the forecast is hyped.
- [00:28:46.510]33% said no and obviously 33% of people
- [00:28:49.330]said they had no opinion if the forecast seemed hyped
- [00:28:51.640]but obviously, that's still 33% of people
- [00:28:54.130]that some forecast is hyped out there.
- [00:28:55.750]So obviously, social media can be used to help
- [00:28:58.090]with the warning process.
- [00:28:59.170]It can be helped to tell the stories,
- [00:29:00.870]especially in times of flooding or devastation
- [00:29:03.480]and I think there's proper ways to use it
- [00:29:04.964]and we just need to learn how to do it.
- [00:29:08.340]So with that, that is all I have.
- [00:29:09.560]I will answer any questions that you have
- [00:29:11.130]if you have any questions that
- [00:29:12.130]regard social media in general.
- [00:29:13.470]It doesn't have to be about the weather.
- [00:29:14.550]Yes, sir.
- [00:29:17.259]I read recently
- [00:29:18.851]because I'm the generation that grew up before internet,
- [00:29:22.207]without internet, then went to internet.
- [00:29:31.283]I read recently that the people
- [00:29:32.116]whose most recent and most often share for my generation
- [00:29:36.500]are 50 plus without checking sources
- [00:29:39.850]because the younger folks have learned
- [00:29:43.969]to double-check your sources, don't believe everything
- [00:29:46.240]on the internet, whereas my generation,
- [00:29:48.684]and we are the ones that usually are interested.
- [00:29:55.939]Don't double-check their information before they share it.
- [00:29:58.840]If somebody makes a bad post about something,
- [00:30:02.930]before using things like the United States
- [00:30:07.650]all the time and a bunch of other checking websites,
- [00:30:09.947]they just share it willy nilly without backing it up.
- [00:30:12.297]Do you have any similar rebound along those lines?
- [00:30:15.340]Yep, so what's interesting about that is you mentioned it.
- [00:30:18.200]So actually being in the digital world.
- [00:30:20.600]Back in the day, Facebook really got popular back in 2010,
- [00:30:25.103]2011 time frame, back then it was people my age
- [00:30:28.380]and younger and older.
- [00:30:30.340]The age group that was popular back then were
- [00:30:32.740]14-year-olds even though Facebook didn't allow it,
- [00:30:34.760]you flubbed your age on Facebook so you could gain access.
- [00:30:37.801]But 14 to 30-year-olds, basically high school age group,
- [00:30:42.780]college age group, that was very popular.
- [00:30:45.080]The number one demographic that is now on Facebook
- [00:30:48.010]and even Twitter as you saw from that video
- [00:30:50.150]is people in that 50 plus age group
- [00:30:52.509]and the reason why is because grandparents
- [00:30:54.340]are trying to connect with their grandchildren online.
- [00:30:56.687]I'm going to use myself as an example.
- [00:30:58.850]My grandparents who live in South Carolina
- [00:31:00.810]who I see maybe once a year got on Facebook
- [00:31:03.420]and they sent me a friend request
- [00:31:04.690]and then obviously they want to see what I do
- [00:31:06.620]because I post where I go and what I do
- [00:31:09.320]so it's a way for them to keep an eye on what I do
- [00:31:12.160]because obviously, as you saw,
- [00:31:14.200]college kids nowadays don't send letters.
- [00:31:15.810]Obviously they don't lick a postage stamp
- [00:31:18.670]because email, obviously email is quickly dying, too.
- [00:31:22.500]People use Twitter, Facebook, that's how they tell
- [00:31:24.810]people their news because Facebook Messenger,
- [00:31:27.080]we shoot a quick message, we type text messaging.
- [00:31:29.357]But the other thing is it's not just that age group
- [00:31:33.490]that falls gullible to checking things.
- [00:31:36.260]The other problem is Facebook, with their analytics
- [00:31:39.820]or algorithms, trying to figure out what to show you
- [00:31:42.850]because Facebook has these really complicated algorithms
- [00:31:46.070]that try to figure out what shows up on your timeline
- [00:31:48.420]because you guys have probably some of the crosses.
- [00:31:50.680]Not everything your friends post shows up
- [00:31:53.431]in your Facebook feed and they do that because they say
- [00:31:55.320]if they show you everything your friends posted,
- [00:31:58.220]you would never be able to read everything
- [00:32:00.000]so they pick and choose what you're able to read
- [00:32:02.900]and then they do that by who you engage with the most
- [00:32:05.510]so whoever's posting like the most often
- [00:32:07.500]or commenting on or send a Facebook message
- [00:32:10.338]but the problem is Facebook every now and then
- [00:32:12.590]decides to throw in a Facebook post that shows
- [00:32:14.860]hey, we think you may like this, we're gonna show it to you
- [00:32:17.485]but that most may be two weeks old,
- [00:32:19.750]that post may be a year old, that's the problem is
- [00:32:23.270]Facebook likes to show you memories
- [00:32:26.224]and sometimes those memories are a year or two years old
- [00:32:28.560]and I know this for example,
- [00:32:30.170]let's say we're covering a blizzard in 2016,
- [00:32:33.380]on March 28th, 2016, we had a blizzard in Iowa
- [00:32:37.413]and on March 28th, 2019, people decided to share
- [00:32:42.040]it was it was currently happening
- [00:32:45.145]even though the weather was nice and 50 degree weather.
- [00:32:47.210]It looked like today's date because it said March 28th
- [00:32:50.550]but they didn't read the date and see it was 2016
- [00:32:52.710]compared to 2019.
- [00:32:54.070]So that's the problem is all of a sudden
- [00:32:56.310]we get these viral videos reshared but they're
- [00:32:57.650]three years old and people are sharing them
- [00:32:59.900]because they think they are recent.
- [00:33:04.560]That's the problem.
- [00:33:06.131]You gotta check the date.
- [00:33:07.132]So obviously the first thing you do before sharing it,
- [00:33:07.965]make sure it's current, make sure it's from the current year
- [00:33:11.598]and make sure, like I said, check your source,
- [00:33:12.820]make sure it's a reliable source.
- [00:33:14.440]Is it coming from the Weather Service and if it's not,
- [00:33:16.970]is it coming from local news?
- [00:33:18.150]If it's not, make sure if it's a hobbyist page,
- [00:33:20.690]make sure you check do they have some sort of background
- [00:33:24.020]or are they one of those that just try to create
- [00:33:25.980]click bait that cause you to share it.
- [00:33:32.443]Is there any push from
- [00:33:34.911]national meteorology people or people now
- [00:33:40.807]but Twitter, Facebook.
- [00:33:44.946]More real accounts that are verified as recent?
- [00:33:49.190]So if you're a meteorologist goes in the mornings
- [00:33:52.363]a few days ago, show those, it's a good source of media,
- [00:33:58.110]especially when you're looking at the old stuff
- [00:34:03.296]and people don't see it.
- [00:34:04.860]So Facebook came out with a feature
- [00:34:07.070]that basically allows you to expire a post
- [00:34:09.640]which is a fantastic feature but a lot of people
- [00:34:11.929]don't know it exists.
- [00:34:13.218]So let's say you post a tornado warning
- [00:34:14.160]for something that is current.
- [00:34:15.370]You can set an end date so it no longer
- [00:34:16.930]shows up on people's timelines and we try to do that
- [00:34:19.146]so that way, if we post a tornado warning
- [00:34:21.000]that's valid for the next hour,
- [00:34:24.050]after it expires, it no long shows up in people's
- [00:34:26.130]time feed so they did come out with that feature.
- [00:34:28.730]In regards to trying to find reputable sources
- [00:34:31.540]in Facebook and Twitter and those big agencies
- [00:34:33.940]to try to do something, Facebook started in recent
- [00:34:38.310]few months, they've come out with a feature, I love it.
- [00:34:40.540]I don't know how well it actually works
- [00:34:42.480]but if you right-click on a post,
- [00:34:44.540]you can flag it as abusive or whatnot
- [00:34:47.540]and then there's a feature in there that
- [00:34:49.223]is hashtag fake news and then Facebook reviews it
- [00:34:54.760]and sees if it falls within their guidelines
- [00:34:57.150]on if it should actually be online or not.
- [00:34:59.539]They are trying to, as we continue to go down this path
- [00:35:03.270]on everything being online, getting your news from online,
- [00:35:06.060]making sure it's a reputable source,
- [00:35:08.290]they are trying to do things and implement things
- [00:35:10.113]that will hopefully make and who says
- [00:35:16.869]your information is more reputable than my information?
- [00:35:18.400]It's all based on your personal opinions.
- [00:35:23.199]'Cause Facebook gives you some of those hyped posts
- [00:35:25.967]and they said hey, it did snow, but it didn't snow that much
- [00:35:30.410]but at least it snowed so they could be semi-credible
- [00:35:34.090]so it's all contingent on that.
- [00:35:36.140]I think and obviously there's no Facebook police.
- [00:35:39.252]You can be a Facebook police if you wanted to
- [00:35:41.440]but through all these different talks
- [00:35:45.210]and educational things I go to,
- [00:35:48.250]there's really no way to,
- [00:35:49.480]I don't think there's a good answer to that,
- [00:35:52.132]to how do we police it, how do we make sure
- [00:35:53.888]that information is reputable?
- [00:35:54.721]Facebook has implemented things such as shows.
- [00:35:56.460]They had little information icon that shows up
- [00:35:58.810]on the news outlets now so whether it's CNN, Fox News,
- [00:36:02.300]Weather Channel, it has a little information icon that says
- [00:36:04.770]a little bit of background about their bio.
- [00:36:07.910]They've also showed page transparency
- [00:36:10.120]so you can see how the page name has changed over time.
- [00:36:13.220]So like that meteorologist page,
- [00:36:15.510]they originally started that page off as
- [00:36:19.390]if you like realm, follow me
- [00:36:21.340]and eventually it transitioned to meteorologists
- [00:36:23.739]so obviously there's some question how reputable that is.
- [00:36:30.270]So the new technology,
- [00:36:32.272]the data for push technology which is the
- [00:36:37.894]approach for using weather radios maybe goes off
- [00:36:40.200]about a severe thunderstorm.
- [00:36:44.070]So you said you have like an app
- [00:36:46.690]that's on there constantly--
- [00:36:48.299]The iOS radio.
- [00:36:49.520]Yeah, yeah.
- [00:36:51.340]Actually, funny that you bring that up.
- [00:36:53.751]I love weather radios, they're fantastic, WR 120s.
- [00:36:59.060]They're fantastic, they go off, you will wake up
- [00:37:02.741]without a question, that sound is piercing.
- [00:37:05.120]But people are like oh, I have a weather app
- [00:37:06.720]that goes off in the middle of the night.
- [00:37:08.050]Think about how many times people sleep
- [00:37:10.740]through their alarms.
- [00:37:12.253]People even sleep through fire alarms
- [00:37:13.510]but I can guarantee with that weather radio,
- [00:37:16.190]you're gonna wake up but so and that's the other thing.
- [00:37:19.020]It's like sure, you may have technology
- [00:37:20.850]but what happens if your phone device is dying
- [00:37:22.730]or that's technology, we know how technology plays out.
- [00:37:26.370]Technology doesn't always hold up
- [00:37:28.470]so sometimes I like old school methods
- [00:37:30.890]and I think weather radios are fantastic
- [00:37:32.800]for your weather alerts which I found interesting
- [00:37:35.210]by that 75% of people saying
- [00:37:37.010]they get their notifications from a weather app.
- [00:37:40.050]There are some really good weather apps out there
- [00:37:41.430]for push notifications but once again,
- [00:37:43.520]I still believe in the old school with a weather radio.
- [00:37:49.070]Anyone else?
- [00:37:52.800]Cool.
- [00:37:54.480]Where'd King go?
- [00:37:57.820]He liked walked in and took photos and walked out.
- [00:38:00.700]He's like the paparazzi.
- [00:38:02.721]Yeah, you have a question.
- [00:38:05.018](audience laughs)
- [00:38:07.868]So yeah, that's an interesting thing.
- [00:38:09.020]It does look like, yeah, there is a big storm system
- [00:38:12.360]moving through on Thursday.
- [00:38:13.630]I definitely think it's something to keep an eye on.
- [00:38:15.850]I think it's majority gonna be rain
- [00:38:17.220]but I think as the temperatures cool on the backside,
- [00:38:19.370]a cold front's supposed to move through
- [00:38:21.403]and I do think it will cool off that we will see some snow.
- [00:38:23.695]I don't think we'll see 40 inches of snow.
- [00:38:25.390]That's the other thing real quick.
- [00:38:27.000]So like when I see these forecast graphics
- [00:38:28.840]show 40 inches of snow in Iowa,
- [00:38:30.430]the most amount of snow that has ever fallen
- [00:38:31.990]in a 48 hour time frame in Iowa has been less than 20 inches
- [00:38:36.040]so obviously, if you know what has happened in your state
- [00:38:39.560]and what has never happened in your state.
- [00:38:41.070]Obviously I'm not saying it will never happen
- [00:38:43.310]'cause sometimes some things happen.
- [00:38:45.100]Look at Pilgrim, Nebraska.
- [00:38:46.150]Twin towers that were EF4s, you know.
- [00:38:48.380]No one ever thought that would happen so yeah,
- [00:38:50.930]I definitely think it will snow some
- [00:38:52.620]but I don't think it's gonna be a blizzard
- [00:38:55.485]of epic proportions.
- [00:38:57.097]But once again, we're still several days out.
- [00:38:59.121]I think as we get closer to Thursdays,
- [00:39:00.430]models will get, time will tell.
- [00:39:03.530]And that was the thing, as I was watching
- [00:39:04.700]the Weather Channel this morning in my hotel room
- [00:39:06.380]and they're already sort of hyping it up, you know.
- [00:39:09.050]They're already talking intense storm hitting Midwest
- [00:39:11.260]bringing epic flooding.
- [00:39:17.302]The rain does look to be pretty impressive
- [00:39:18.500]and in this area, the rain is not needed.
- [00:39:21.230]Hopefully the models fall apart
- [00:39:23.157]and we only get a trace of rain here.
- [00:39:27.840]Well thank you guys, I appreciate it.
- [00:39:29.823](audience applauds)
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