Social media weather services explode in popularity

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Social media weather services have exploded in popularity in recent years, especially during times of natural disasters. Some have millions of followers, but there are calls for consumers to be careful where they get their information from.

Transcript

00:00Thomas Hinterdorfer is a self-described weather nerd.

00:06Behind the scenes we sit here and we chat about weather for 12, 14, 16 hours a day.

00:11From his spare bedroom near Toowoomba, he comes up with forecasts

00:15for one of Australia's largest social media weather pages, Kigan Storm Chasing.

00:20We try and use the resources we've got, whether it's visuals on the ground

00:24or radar information, because radar is becoming much more accurate now.

00:28We try really hard to use those tools available to us to accurately call weather.

00:32Higgins has more than a million followers

00:35and is one of many social media weather services to evolve in recent years.

00:42These pages not only share forecasts, but also videos of wild weather.

00:47Anthony Violi runs a service catered to farmers.

00:50I've got a farming background, so I've always been interested in weather of course,

00:54as most farmers are.

00:55Basically all farmers need to make decisions well ahead of time.

00:58So for next year you need to be planning already now.

01:01Consumer experts say these pages, while informative, are also a form of entertainment.

01:08It is beyond just a weather forecast.

01:15Consumers check forecasts from multiple sources.

01:18My father, and he is a farmer, he will get weather forecasts from four sources

01:23because otherwise it costs him a lot of money.

01:25Queensland has already been hit by heavy rain and more is expected over summer.

01:29The State Government says residents should check official sources

01:33like the Bureau of Meteorology for the latest forecasts and warnings.

01:37Refer to those key institutions like the Queensland Police Service

01:41and the Queensland Fire Department for their timely information.

01:44It's probably better than hearing it third-hand off a random TikTok account.

01:49Some storm chasers say they feel a responsibility to their audience not to exaggerate forecasts.

01:55We also understand that we've got a big public role, obviously with the amount of people that follow us.

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