The @weatherwatches account on Twitter is something I created to tweet and alert people to Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm watches that are about to be issued in the United States.

Under The Hood

Information is ingested from the LDM network, which is nearly instantaneous.  The information being scanned is the preliminary watch box notifications, which means there will be a tweet usually about 5 minutes before the watch is actually issued (and most other media pick up on it).  The bot will tweet the type of watch, state list, and expiration time in one tweet.  Immediately after, he will list the top cities affected (in descending order of population).

Recent Improvements

Beginning in March of 2009, the bot will also tweet a warning when a watch is imminent (when the Storm Prediction Center issues a mesoscale discussion indicating that either a watch “will be needed soon” or is “likely”).  The same geographic information will be given as when a watch is issued, however, the event will be referred to as an “area of concern” until the watch is actually issued.

Jargon Alert

If you’re not familiar, these types of watches are issued by the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.  If you’re not sure what Tornado or Severe Thunderstorm Watches are, the Storm Prediction Center has provided a very thorough and easy-to-read FAQ on this topic.

“Weather Watches” is just meant as a simple, heads-up service for people who like to receive timely information via Twitter (or on your phone via SMS updates).  If you have questions about the bot or what the terminology means, please tweet to me personally.  I am @blairblends on Twitter.

Future Plans

I will eventually make the bot “smarter” when day one or two outlooks indicate MDT or HIGH probabilities.  Additionally, I will phrase PDS watches differently as soon as I have time to work on the code again.  If you have other suggestions, please tweet me (see link above) or e-mail watches@wxdata.us.

For Chasers, Media, Meteorologists

There is an e-mail list with detailed information that is dispatched when a preliminary watch box goes up from WMO ID WWUS30.  If you’d like to be on this e-mail list, please send a request (along with your affiliation) to watches@wxdata.us.