The Social Media Problem

[thunderman]

It is no secret that the number and average quality of "forecasting" personalities on social media has gone through some changes over the last year or so.  Recently, this has become even more evident with rogue personalities posting worst case scenario model output without fully understanding what it is.  As a result the weather hype machine has been accelerated to a forward speed that we have rarely seen in the past.  I do not think this problem is likely remedy it's self.  Why?  Because people like hype and will continue to return to it.  From a forecasting standpoint, this makes no logical sense.  This does however seem to be human nature.  The evidence is in the insane number of followers that some of these personalities have.  "Weatherboy Weather" alone on Facebook has over 150,000 likes.  These large followings makes it difficult for other forecasting operations, such as other legit social media personalities and even the National Weather Service, to carry out their mission ... keep the public informed of impending dangerous weather, while keeping them calm.

The one thing that I think has yet to be seen is how these pages are going to behave in severe weather situations.  It is one thing to track a snowstorm from days out, but severe weather forecasting is an entirely different animal.  You can’t go to the ECMWF and get a tornado track plot or a chart of model produced hail reports, like you can a total accumulated snowfall chart.  Ideally these pages will realize they are in over their heads and grow more quite during the warm season ... essentially meaning that their hype would just be something to be dealt with from November - March.
 

In my opinion, if this hype machine continues chugging ahead during severe season then we could face a much bigger problem.  What if once SPC starts honking on an event in the 4-6 day time frame and these rogue pages start highlighting half the region of interest for a "major tornado outbreak" or a derecho.  Worse yet, what if they start using radar data as evidence that an EF-4/5 tornado is headed for xyz town and advising people to flee in their vehicles?  Wait, didn't we see that last severe season in Oklahoma?

In a way, I think the professional community is somewhat responsible for starting the problem that we are now facing.  We have some big names in the business playing right into the hype and non-science aspect of things.  The Weather Channel is naming winter storms, Accuweather is claiming they can forecast exact numbers out to 45 days, etc.  We stared encouraging the birth of these new "forecasters" a while ago.  So now for the million dollar question.  What do we, as the meteorological community, do to fix this problem that we kind of helped to create in the first place?  Do we band together and start calling out these absurd forecasts publicly?  Do we just let them carry on and hope they just go away?

[Windspeed]

You can hope all you want, but the problem isn't going away. The very nature of how social media is evolving will make this issue worse. I don't have any answers on how to resolve it either. How do you prevent a weather enthusiast from making forecasts and discussing severe weather? Unless it can be proven that an invdividual lacking professional merits or a certification is falsy misleading a large number of the general public, I'm not sure how you go about taking legal action or litigation against them. And even if you can show they did mislead a large number, and they are at fault, you have to weigh their rights of personal opinion or freedom of speech against any causation of wrong-doing. Perhaps you must show they had to have a malicious intent? After doing all of that, even then, what are the consequences? Obviously, I'm not a legal expert; however, I can see a real can of worms being opened. We're not dealing with slander or "crying wolf" in so much as someone simply being wrong on their opinions, even if that puts someone else in harms way or threat to life and property.**

 

Aside from social media, many boards and blogs use disclaimers that specifically remove responsibility for any unofficial opinion, prediction, forecast, whatever, and direct viewers to official sources for decisions on life and property. Yet, the very nature of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, the problem is amplified by the shear massive numbers that have access to any individual's words or thoughts instantaneously. Trying to control or even police opinon and thoughts on scientific subjects seems like a mindblowing proposition to me. Leaving it up to these gigantic corporations like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc., to take responsibility for what is shared on their media platforms seems like something that could drag out for years in the Supreme Court.

 

If there is a solution, perhaps it lies with re-educating the general public. Perhaps we need to swing a little taxpayer money toward public service announcements that remind the masses to value certified professionals over amateurs. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to persuade the social media companies to warn their patrons about making and sharing unofficial forecasts and predictions without disclaimers. However, suggesting or persuading is light years ahead of pursuing litigation.** "I am not a certified meteorologists or degree-holding scientist, etc., etc..." Perhaps social media companies could figure out a way to specify account types for professional scientists and certified professionals. If you aren't a professional, your opinion isn't professional. However, does that open avenues for policing this growing problem? I don't know. That solution will come from, oh.. you know, the professionals.

 

** Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. My opinion on this subject doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Sorry I've wasted your time.

[thunderman]

I actually kind of like the special account types for professionals (kind of like red tags here).

[Quixotic1]

Think the solution is to hammer the biggest offenders with the truth: verification. Just how you do it publicly is the problem. Form a group similar to political watchdog groups and compare these guys. I'd work on something like that gratis.

[NeffsvilleWx]

They say that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." It certainly applies to this topic. Those who actually forecast for a living aren't paid to market themselves. They are concerned with providing a product, nothing more. They don't have the time or desire to "squeak" as loud as the facebook hobbyists, and why should they? They have a career doing what they enjoy.

 

 

That being said, the problem isn't limited to weather forecasting. The internet/social media has made everyone an expert. On everything. True expertise is becoming less and less valuable. We are becoming a nation that relies on what we can find on Google instead of the years of education and experience that true experts possess.

[Rick G]

^{there is a local group that  I have been watching, they have been sticking with their guesses and have been pretty good. There is another group that is a semi pro group, they have an append they sell their service (they are trying to be an accuwx) . the NWS called for a tornado watch and this group stated that there was no risk of tornados. There was at least one tornado reported in their area. I called them out on that and they said they have the same degrees as the NWS.}

^{The first group stated today that people are threating to sue them. They are claiming to stand behind the first amendment. I did bring up that if all speech was protected, then anyone could walk into a theater and yell fire.}

 

^{I do like some of the things these groups can do, they can give personal service to the public, which the NWS has started with their social networking. I think the line is drawn when they start issuing warnings and telling the public to ignore the warnings. I don't care if they tell people to be careful but once they start trying to be the NWS, that is where the line needs to be drawn.}

[mempho]

Why exactly is this a problem? I mean, here locally, we had a Euro run just inside of 180 and the wx bell clown map showing 2 feet of snow.

Now, obviously, this was ridiculous since 2 feet of snow in Memphis is impossible (we haven't even gotten an inch this year) and I'm fairly certain that local and NWS mets wouldn't even forecast 10 inches if it showed up within 24 hours - simply because experience and judgment say it's not gonna happen.

In any case, someone posted this all around on social media. It created a firestorm to the extent that some professional forecasters addressed the lunacy of it. This continued on for a least 4 days even after subsequent model runs significantly cut QPF and eventually lost the storm. Still, this continued.

Here's why I don't see it as a problem: people are in general attracted to the idea that they have some secret or inside knowledge. Eventually, when they have been through a few cycles and have seen the results, they will leave it to the the professionals. They may become wx weenies and join boards like this but they will realize that hype rarely lives up to its promise.

In fact, at least 90% of storms depicted on major models inside 7 days bust (in the south). We probably tracked 10 systems this year that had significant snow promised and not a single one panned out. Once people figure out how atrociously bad the wx models actually perform, they should actually have more respect for the professionals that try to make sense of it all and it she also make then more understanding when there's an epic bust.

Our local and NWS wx forecasters have had a very difficult winter with a lot of high profile busts. I haven't been critical at all because I've seen how difficult and inconsistent the modeling has been.

There will always be a new influx of people who are attracted by the hype but it requires a fresh supply of new people because the average person grows skeptical after a few misses. They may look from then on (I still collect clown maps, for instance, but I know that I have about as much chance of getting 2 feet of snow as I have of winning the Mega Millions).

Sent from my SCH-L710

[isohume]

When weenies start spouting off dorky weather posts on my FB page, this is the soln that works for me...

 

 

[Ed Lizard]

It is pretty easy to recognize who is and isn't very good on FB/Twitter, and only follow the decent forecasters.

 

I follow several pages of people who chase and have AmWx accounts.

 

I follow JB on Twitter, although he doesn't tweet much in the way of forecasts. BTW, Dr. Masters at Wunderground is a highly respected tropical forecaster, but his forum, other than his initial blog post, is generally weenie trash. But it was like primary school, getting me ready for the next level of weather forums.

 

 

Nerd/weenie alert- I use to e-mail NWS HGX when I saw a mistake in the AFD, when they described 'a near 1040 mb low' before the January ice storm, I sent a tweet, got a reply, and the AFD was corrected.

 

I follow an HPC met who has an inside connection on bad spelling/bad auto-correct NWS AFDs, but that is just for the humor.

[ohleary]

They say that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." It certainly applies to this topic. Those who actually forecast for a living aren't paid to market themselves. They are concerned with providing a product, nothing more. They don't have the time or desire to "squeak" as loud as the facebook hobbyists, and why should they? They have a career doing what they enjoy.

 

 

That being said, the problem isn't limited to weather forecasting. The internet/social media has made everyone an expert. On everything. True expertise is becoming less and less valuable. We are becoming a nation that relies on what we can find on Google instead of the years of education and experience that true experts possess.

 

Except for every last TV meteorologist in the country.  We asked a professor of mine back in the day what he thought of TV Meteorologist as a job.  He thought and said, "Well, first and foremost, it's show business." 

[NeffsvilleWx]

Except for every last TV meteorologist in the country.

Isn't that the marketing departments job?

[ohleary]

Isn't that the marketing departments job?

 

I'll defer to any TV mets on here, but they do have to market themselves, i.e. numerous school appearances, forecast spots from the local farmers market, etc.  I'd be surprised to find a TV Met ONLY doing straight on-air forecasting.  One that does wouldn't be very successful or popular I'd guess.

[nrgjeff]

The early and often hype does a clear and dangerous disservice to the public. Just like with warnings, bust enough early hype and they won't pay attention when the real deal strikes. Social media makes it much worse. However it also hurts when NWS Chat or EM briefings are leaked. Worst case scenarios are for economic decisions, not general public use.

 

The business world does indeed need 5-7 day impact forecasts, which we know is beyond the state of the art of the science. Savvy business users know the forecast is subject to change, as opposed to the public crying about small tweaks. Business decision makers need a baseline 5-7 day forecast to work from. Then they can fine tune plans around 3 days. Mets would love to wait until day 1-2 but money has to be spent on mitigation 3-4 days out.

 

There is no solution to the problem. AMS or CCM labels are only as good as the public's education about them. Keep in mind most people don't know the difference between a watch and a warning. Mets have to keep taking silly questions from an ignorant population. Commercial Mets have to try our best to help business decision makers act 2 days earlier than the state of the art of the science really allows.

 

Happy forecasting. Cheers!

[Jebman]

WE fix it with something called Author Rank.

 

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104474428845467390263

 

Google is using author rank to distinguish the true experts from the non experts in many fields. NWS should talk to Google and Mark Traphagen about the weather yahoo problem online and its adverse impact on public perceptions. I think something could be worked out.

[LocoAko]

I actually kind of like the special account types for professionals (kind of like red tags here).

 

 

^{I called them out on that and they said they have the same degrees as the NWS.}

Yep. A lot of them are just weenie hobbyists, but unfortunately I know of at least a few who have degrees themselves. Despite the respect red taggers get here on the forum (and there is certainly a reason for that), the sad truth is that a degree in meteorology is no guarantee that the person knows much of what they're talking about when it comes to forecasting in less-than-ideal scenarios.

 

 

It is pretty easy to recognize who is and isn't very good on FB/Twitter.

For you, perhaps, but I don't think this is true of the general public. My mom comes to me about the weather and knows I have the degree, of course, and even she and all her friends have been bugging me about how they "heard" they're "supposed" to get "at least a foot" 5+ days out. This wasn't an issue before when they had only the NWS or TV mets (who are usually hesitant to give amounts out days out, don't show silly model uns, etc.) to rely on.

It is troubling to see how many followers and especially 'likes' and 'shares' some of these pages have compared to the NWS. Sometimes thousands more. A few weeks ago when there were major rumors of a huge snowstorm affecting the Northeast that were completely unreliable, I remember going to Upton's FB page. I saw what I interpreted it as frustration and snarky & subtle retorts to the recent onslought of social media hype. It is frustrating to see the NWS having to resort to this to get their point across. Groan.

Some of the NWS posts (emphasis mine):

Good afternoon! We are working hard on getting a complete forecast package out that includes an update on the winter storm Wednesday night into Thursday. Please remember that we cannot just use one weather model for our forecast. We have to incorporate a whole suite of guidance and also knowledge of how the atmosphere, science, and Meteorology of our region work. Thank you for your patience!

To further help dispel rumors of a major snow storm this weekend, this loop of 3 different models should help..... Can the situation change? Sure it can, and we are monitoring the situation. If it does change, we’ll let you know, after all, that's what we are here for, to keep you well informed...and apparently to help dispel rumors.

For a recent event (I honestly can't even remember which, but these were the stats at the moment I grabbed the forecast graphics):

Severe NJ Wx forecast: 1,292 likes, 2,417 shares.

Eastern PA weather authority forecast: 1,179 likes, 3,517 shares.

NWS Upton forecast: 78 likes, 157 shares.

As to what to do about any of this.... I haven't the slightest clue, and I doubt anything can be done.

[blizznd]

There was a great video I saw recently and posted on NWS social media forum about how you can "buy" likes and use click farms in overseas countries to increase your number of likes.    Thus you can impress folks with number of likes, but half could be from Egypt or Nepal....but they are likes and make you seem more powerful and important than you are.    This video study also used the Facebook pay to advertise thing and it turned out that instead of targeting users likely to use your page, it too went to click farms overseas where people are paid per thousand likes.    We dont promote NWS pages, so less likely of an issue, but be leery of some pages with all these hundreds of thousands of likes.....some may or may not be true "fans" but just a click from a mouse.

 

[blizznd]

About accuracy of long range forecasts....   I often have shaken my head when TV and other venues started to give 7 or even 10 day forecasts with one number for a high and low.   Like we can actually forecast that accurately that far out.     The last several years NWS does this now  using a blend model tool we put out a one number high and low temp out to 7 days.    

 

Doing so I think leads the public to think we a lot confidence in our forecasts, after all we put out it will be 33 7 days for now...  not in the 30s or 30-35....but 33 exactly on the NWS point and click.  As forecasters we know this detail of accuracy is not there, but yet we put it out like it is.    

 

For some of the last storm events in the east coast I saw some good examples from NWS Sterling page about their use of probabilities for snow accumulations, and I think that is good.   While very hard for the public to understand, at least meteorologically it makes sense to go with a low end and top end amount in the long range and then narrow from there.    It shows the true confidence we have, which is uncertainity. 

 

But getting the public to understand that....good luck.  Even EM's.     After the Grand Forks ND flood in 97,  we were a test site for the probablistic outlooks beyond the 5 day crest forecasts...showing the inheritent uncertainity in forecasting a river point crest more than 5 days out.   It has been 15 years and still we get questions about it and how to interpret it.   People nowadays dont like to hear uncertainity and IMO they dont like having to make a decision for themselves, and thus would prefer a solid number so they can grasp and use and then blame the giver of the information when its wrong.  

[The_Global_Warmer]

If our govt had any sense. They would revamp NOAA radio however if needs to be so that they could either send every home in the US a device like a smoke alarm in a way that would beep or just blast like an emergency horn when there is severe weather. Followed by a loud PA announcement of the situation.

Or we could revamp the siren system and addd tens of thousands if necessary so that when its Tornado time you will need a sound proof room to not hear it.

Or maybe have an EBS that texts and alerts every cell in the warning area.

Also do the tv thing. A 20 second TV/radio interruption is worth saving lives.

The Govt can fund a NOAA/NWS public awareness dept.

if it costs 10, 20, 50 million per year to run tv/radio ADs, advertise on Facebook and twitter, in AARP, at sporting events etc so be it.

They could mail pamphlets to every US home with info about the NWS telling them which Local CWA they live in and how to get to their website.

A voucher included for the free NWS weather warning alarm.

Have NWS week in every public school, institution, local emergency services and such.

Fire fighters and cops can be trained to go to schools and teach about the NWS and weather safety.

The NWS can train people like a network of trained spotters but instead they would be like forwarders of official NWS updates for incliment weather by All possible mediums to reach as many people as possible.

I don't know but we can't restrict citizens good or bad.

Bit we can get the NWS much larger and relevant as the official Weather source in the United States.

[NittanyWx]

 

 

Yep. A lot of them are just weenie hobbyists, but unfortunately I know of at least a few who have degrees themselves. Despite the respect red taggers get here on the forum (and there is certainly a reason for that), the sad truth is that a degree in meteorology is no guarantee that the person knows much of what they're talking about when it comes to forecasting in less-than-ideal scenarios.

 

 

For you, perhaps, but I don't think this is true of the general public. My mom comes to me about the weather and knows I have the degree, of course, and even she and all her friends have been bugging me about how they "heard" they're "supposed" to get "at least a foot" 5+ days out. This wasn't an issue before when they had only the NWS or TV mets (who are usually hesitant to give amounts out days out, don't show silly model uns, etc.) to rely on.

It is troubling to see how many followers and especially 'likes' and 'shares' some of these pages have compared to the NWS. Sometimes thousands more. A few weeks ago when there were major rumors of a huge snowstorm affecting the Northeast that were completely unreliable, I remember going to Upton's FB page. I saw what I interpreted it as frustration and snarky & subtle retorts to the recent onslought of social media hype. It is frustrating to see the NWS having to resort to this to get their point across. Groan.

Some of the NWS posts (emphasis mine):

For a recent event (I honestly can't even remember which, but these were the stats at the moment I grabbed the forecast graphics):

Severe NJ Wx forecast: 1,292 likes, 2,417 shares.

Eastern PA weather authority forecast: 1,179 likes, 3,517 shares.

NWS Upton forecast: 78 likes, 157 shares.

As to what to do about any of this.... I haven't the slightest clue, and I doubt anything can be done.

 

 

This is a fantastic post and goes straight to the heart of the issue.  I think a lot of this stems from the fact that there truly aren't a ton of jobs for degreed meteorologists at this point in time.  As a result, many of the folks who make up these social media forecasting platforms turn to these "services" as a resume booster or a way to stay in touch with the weather as they continue to search for a job.  People at the heart of the social media forecasting community may not realize it, but they're doing a massive dis-service to both those in the industry and themselves by doing this.  If companies can get their weather for free, why pay a private service to forecast for them?  Less business for private service = less jobs for the degreed mets looking.  At the same time, I can't blame the degreed mets who can't find a job for doing this...you have to stay in touch with the weather to even have a remote shot at getting yourself hired.

 

Oftentimes the only way these independent contractors/businesses (who turn to social media outlets) learn that you're better off getting a met who works at a shop - and has gone through the rigors of forecast verification and the interview process - is if something blows up in their face.  At the same time, those who turn to the hype machine forecasters and weenies who are posting clown maps at day 7 maybe deserve to have it blow up in their face.

 

I don't work in a professional private weather shop anymore and I'm in a different side of the met business currently.  But I can't help but think that a massive amount of misinformation exists because degreed mets and professional (I use that word strongly, because many of these guys who are hobbyists try to proclaim that they are a professional met) give lip service to the hype.  Case in point, the above NWS graphics.  I think if anything, this shows that the WFO's and private companies need to become more savvy in how they market their forecasts and their accuracy.  Laud your call when you get it right, because lord knows some of these weenies will kill you if you get it wrong.  Make it clear, share it across multiple platforms and work with your local TV mets to get the message out there.

 

It's not an easy task, but I've found that over time people will tune out the guys who are always wrong.  See Margusity.

[Jim Marusak]

This is a fantastic post and goes straight to the heart of the issue.  I think a lot of this stems from the fact that there truly aren't a ton of jobs for degreed meteorologists at this point in time.  As a result, many of the folks who make up these social media forecasting platforms turn to these "services" as a resume booster or a way to stay in touch with the weather as they continue to search for a job.  People at the heart of the social media forecasting community may not realize it, but they're doing a massive dis-service to both those in the industry and themselves by doing this.  If companies can get their weather for free, why pay a private service to forecast for them?  Less business for private service = less jobs for the degreed mets looking.  At the same time, I can't blame the degreed mets who can't find a job for doing this...you have to stay in touch with the weather to even have a remote shot at getting yourself hired.

the portions of this part of the response is dead-on, especially the red sections. The main problem is the lack of jobs, despite the fact that there are clients that would/should use the information that mets as part of a more organized company (special events, civic areas, energy, etc). But the AMS and NWA don't want to touch that pole with other than lip service, because they'd have to admit  that leadership within the field has failed in this aspect and that drastic measures might need to be taken to get the supply/demand to be more equalized, maybe even asking businesses to become slightly less efficient in order to take up the excess supply. the end of the NWS hiring freeze will help this some, but to be bluntly honest, I have been asking for more indepth studies on the labor-force balance since 2000/2001 by a joint AMS/NWA committee. Maybe this problem can be the spurring agent to finally get the ball rolling on this.

 

too bad I'm not sure if I'm eligible to run for the AMS Presidency or Vice Presidency (other than a chapter level, where I am a VP out here in the Twin Cities) . Because if I was, I have to admit, getting mets out of the job doldrums and actually working productively without needing to spend oodles of bucks for a CCM (like some of the higher-ups have hinted at on linkedin when bringing up a workforce-related topic) is what would solve a lot of this problem.

 

The only other solution I do see is maybe start allowing malpractice lawsuits for really bad forecasts (damages of course within reason for compensatory only, punitive only for extreme gross negligence), and let the legal system  do the dirty work, even if it dirtier than films from the central valley. But that's a solution I'm not sure the field wants.

 

your opinions on that?

[isohume]

I think a lot of this stems from the fact that there truly aren't a ton of jobs for degreed meteorologists at this point in time.  As a result, many of the folks who make up these social media forecasting platforms turn to these "services" as a resume booster or a way to stay in touch with the weather as they continue to search for a job.  People at the heart of the social media forecasting community may not realize it, but they're doing a massive dis-service to both those in the industry and themselves by doing this.  If companies can get their weather for free, why pay a private service to forecast for them?  Less business for private service = less jobs for the degreed mets looking.  At the same time, I can't blame the degreed mets who can't find a job for doing this...you have to stay in touch with the weather to even have a remote shot at getting yourself hired.

 

There has never been enough met jobs for the folks with degrees. I think the problem these days is we're just witnessing the horrible combination of easy data, wide interconnectivity, and unabashed egos. If folks want to buy into all that crap, let 'em. They'll eventually get burned by it all. When I see something continuously hyped up and non-sensical (not just wx), I hide the dorky poster from my social feeds. Problem solved. Others just enjoy drama I suppose. I really don't think the NWS should have a comment on this issue either and I kinda cringed when a couple offices put out statements.  

[Jim Marusak]

There has never been enough met jobs for the folks with degrees. I think the problem these days is we're just witnessing the horrible combination of easy data, wide interconnectivity, and unabashed egos. If folks want to buy into all that crap, let 'em. They'll eventually get burned by it all. When I see something continuously hyped up and non-sensical (not just wx), I hide the dorky poster from my social feeds. Problem solved. Others just enjoy drama I suppose. I really don't think the NWS should have a comment on this issue either and I kinda cringed when a couple offices put out statements.  

 

i know i have had to correct friends and family more than a few times on local facebook people over-hyping things and just being delusional. but it is the illusion of more personal and local with the service than with the companies that is a big part of that.

 

As well, I don't know that the availability of the model data is as big a problem as plenty of mets and non-mets who either don't know to use the data or abuse it thinking it's the word of god/mother nature/deity of choice, not just a semi-idealistic look at what the atmosphere should be. And to be honest, I know I had to go through the school of hard knocks a few times. And my first job in Canada as well as my intern time at A-w did help with that.

 

one of the things though that some of younger mets here didn't have to worry about: the x-ray emitters that were the mainframe VAX terminals I had to use in college, accu-weather (west college ave building days) as well as most of my time at World Weatherwatch in toronto (the owner just didn't want to upgrade for some reason until they were forced to).

[Jonger]

The highest rated afternoon talk show in Detroit was passing along what would be a 1 in 50 year snowstorm output in their show discussion. They got this info from a Chicago social media outlet that posted a NAM clown map. That page has over 5,000 followers. People were calling in with panic.

[KokomoWX]

The public wants more than 90 seconds of the sexy weather girl reading the forecast on the evening news.  They want more than the dry and conservative forecast than NWS offers.  People will step up to serve that roll until those with degrees can find their niche and fill the need.  Unfortunately, there are also many in the general public who do not read accompanying text or take information presented out of context and share it.  Meteorologists can take back their profession but providing flavorless forecasts or bullying the hobbyists/enthusiast isn't the way to go about it. 

[TheWeatherPimp]

The main stream media is no better than some of the weenies out there. Rockford WREX and their NAM hugging on Monday. Got over 1,000 shares and showed Rockford getting over 8" of snow. Needless to say they got almost none, no winter weather advisory, etc. But they graphic, the way it was worded, etc. was shared all over Facebook and Twitter.

 

The NAM was the only model showing said scenario but they showed it anyways. 

 

They aren't the only TV station that did or does this.

 

The problem is much bigger than the so called amateur sites.

[weatherwiz]

Model snowfall graphics are by far the absolutely worst and there is zero use for them...absolutely none.  I cringe anytime I see someone post a model snowfall map.  I don't even know why people waste their time looking at them or even use them...IMO doing so shows that the individual can't interpret models or data themselves and they have to rely on a model output to show them potential totals.  

[WhiteoutWX]

Dont know if this falls under the social media problem but theweatherspace.com is probably one of the worst examples of this. This guy is a wacko without a degree in meteorology and has a ton of people listening to his garbage. Just last week he predicted we would have the next Superstorm of 93 along the East Coast. He even issues his own severe weather warnings completely in conflict with the NWS. That's not just irresponsible, that's potentially dangerous.

[huronicane]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/chicago-meteorologist-twitter-bullies-rival-over-forecast_b117136

Seems that everyone in northern Illinois is getting into it

[huronicane]

http://thesandpaper.villagesoup.com/p/recent-tornado-watch-spins-question-of-readiness-in-local-minds/1140172

What a terrible piece of writing.