First there was fake news. Now, there's fake weather. The motivation for bad people to create fake news and fake weather is to collect page clicks for money, or 'Facebook likes'. They also may be doing it to perpetuate some sort of an agenda. In the case of weather, it's become unfortunately all too common on social media platforms like Facebook to see fake weather posts being shared tens of thousands of times. They're completely un-vetted and created by unscrupulous people. Let's use this image (above) as a case-study. It has been shared over 20,000 times this week and it's completely fabricated. It is fake because our science is not remotely close to being able to forecast a landfall zone months away from a hurricane even forming. It's also still way too early to forecast how many hurricanes you can expect. This fake weather post does it all. Organizations like the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the National Weather Association (NWA), both of which I hold a seal of approval, vet meteorologists for this very reason. (Look for our seals when you watch the weather.)...............................The first step in confirming that this is fake weather was contacting a good friend who leads research for the Colorado State University tropical meteorology department. You know that name because they were the first in the world to offer seasonal hurricane forecasts decades ago. It was thus confirmed to me that not only is it too early to offer even rudimentary outlooks on the 2018 season, but suggesting there is a way to forecast a likely impact zone is totally and utterly baseless........................................................... In a second stage of verifying, I used Facebook's Messenger and reached out to the organization who created this suspect forecast (a page I will leave nameless so they don't get any more press). After repeated back-and-forth messaging, they would not provide any information about who they are (names), what educational or professional experience they may have, or any other identifying credentials. They instead lectured me about how, "I obviously knew nothing about weather or the industry.... and, that they offer 100% accurate weather information". THEN THEY BLOCKED ME. No kidding. So, lesson here: PLEASE consider your sources before sharing the fake weather.............................................. One side note: 'Enthusiast pages' like this will sometimes re-post official material, fooling people into thinking they're an aggregate of real information, but that doesn't mean all of their posts will be legit! At last check, this unverified (no blue check mark) Facebook page has over 74,000 likes, placing them in the 'social media influencer' category. That's disappointing. When groups like this are inevitably wrong, those who chose to believe them may conclude that, "all forecasters got it wrong" and the Boy Who Cried Wolf scenario becomes an issue when real warnings or outlooks are needed. These alarmist posts incite panic and encourage people to make decisions which may harm them physically or financially. You can find reputable hurricane information at hurricanes.gov and khou.com/hurricanes. -Meteorologist Brooks Garner
The opinions I express in my blog do not necessarily reflect those of KHOU-TV, khou.com or their parent company TEGNA.
