Clouds and Clout: Understanding the Role of Social Media in a National Weather Service Forecast Office

The National Weather Service (NWS) is responsible for issuing and distributing weather hazard information, warnings, and advisories to help communities protect themselves from harm. One relatively new and important method used to fulfill this mission is the use of social media platforms, such as X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook; yet the public knows little about forecaster policies, practices, and challenges in this space. While several studies have been conducted on general NWS practices or communication strategies, many neglect to address this social media usage from the experts’ points-of-view and the broader context of their personal experiences and beliefs. Social media studies surrounding weather disproportionately focus on public use rather than the experts themselves, and for a topic as important as hazard communication, there is merit to understanding both the sender’s and the receiver’s points-of-view to identify potential miscommunications. This thesis addresses this disparity by directly studying the staff employed within the NWS and their use of and beliefs about social media. Specifically, this thesis takes an ethnographic approach within a local Weather Forecast Office (WFO), the NWS WFO in Lubbock, TX. Through participant observations with staff over the course of a year, the goal of this work is to better understand their tools and practices, learn about their challenges, and elicit insights directly from the staff themselves. Results highlight three main themes that illustrate how social media is used in an NWS WFO: first, generational preferences shape forecasters’ use and comfort level with social media; second, there is a lack of robust training relating to social media use and communication with the public; and third, the role of the forecaster as a predictive expert is evolving in an ever-increasing digital world. The thesis concludes with suggestions that might assist NOAA, local forecasters, and researchers with future endeavors to further improve knowledge about NWS forecasters’ experiences with social media and their role as prediction experts.