Sending Weather and Surf Reports via Twitter

Weather and Surf Reports via Twitter
You can now submit your significant weather observations to the National Weather Service (NWS) via Twitter.
For more information on this experimental project please click here.

Everyone talks about the weather. Now's your chance to "tweet" it and be heard. Through an experimental program, the National Weather Service will be searching for tweets that contain significant weather information.

What types of reports are we looking for?

You can tweet any weather event that occurs in your local area, but we are most interested in significant events: severe weather including hail, strong wind , flooding, marine hazards, snowfall, etc. In particular:

Damage from winds--briefly describe what was damaged and time it occurred.
Hail--include size of hail and time it fell.
Tornadoes, waterspouts or funnel clouds.
Flooding--briefly describe what is occurring.
Surf heights, coastal flooding due to high surf -- briefly describe conditions, including the time of observation.
Snowfall during an event and storm total. When reporting snowfall, include the time period when it fell.
Freezing rain or freezing drizzle producing a 'glaze' on objects or roads.
Dense fog restricting visibility to less than a half mile.
Marine observations including high seas or winds, and dense fog or torrential rain restricting visibility to less than a mile.

To help ensure that we see your report of weather and/or surf, please include the hash tag #wxreport somewhere in the report. Please make sure to always include the time of report.

Anyone with a Twitter account can participate. Note: Trained storm spotters should use pre-established communication methods (toll-free line, eSpotter, etc.), when possible, to send severe weather reports to the NWS.

Here's What You Need to Do:

If Geotagging is available on your 3rd party Twitter application:

Make sure geotagging is turned on for your 3rd party Twitter app.
Make sure geotagging is turned on for your Twitter account page.
- Through the web page: http://twitter.com/account/settings
- From your mobile device: http://twitter.com/account/settings/geo
Submit your Tweet report via your 3rd party app in the following format:
#wxreport your significant weather report

Some examples of weather report tweets with geotagging:

Ex. 1: #wxreport flooding on road with water up to the bottom of doors on cars
Ex. 2: #wxreport Wind knocked down tree at 4:25 pm

If Geotagging is NOT available on your 3rd party Twitter application (or you want to use the web-based Twitter.com):

Log into your Twitter account via the web or mobile device.
Submit your tweet report in the following format:
#wxreport WW your location WW your significant weather report
Your location can be just about anything, but the more specific the better. Here are some examples listed from most accurate to least accurate location identification:
- Most accurate--A latitude and longitude:
  WW 44.231, -88.485 WW
- An address:
  WW 2485 S College Rd, Wilmington, NC 28405 WW
- A street intersection:
  WW intersection of New Centre Dr and S College Rd, Wilmington, NC WW
- A city name:
  WW Wilmington, NC WW
- Least accurate--A zip code:
  WW 28409 WW

Some examples of weather report tweets without geotagging:

Ex. 1: #wxreport WW 1289 S College Rd, Wilmington, NC WW 3.0" of rain between 1 and 2 pm
Ex. 2: #wxreport WW 34.215, -77.912 WW Hail 1 inch in diameter at 4:25 pm

To monitor or view your reports after submitting...

Check our map at http://www.weather.gov/hawaii/pages/twitter/

The following external (non-NWS) links will monitor #wxreport tweets (click the links below):

Note: Some #wxreport monitoring websites that plot the weather report on a map may not properly plot tweets that use the "WW" location tag.

If you have any questions, please contact your National Weather Service at Honolulu, HI at NWS HFO

National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office