Student-Driven Hyperlocal Weather Forecasting on Social Media: AthensGaWeather at The University of Georgia

The social media site AthensGaWeather, created by University of Georgia (UGA) student Matt Daniel in 2009, has provided forecasts and weather updates for the Athens, Georgia region for the past decade. The initial effort was a side project of UGA students and alumni. After almost a decade of volunteer public service through the AthensGaWeather site, Daniel and others became too busy with their own careers in other states to maintain the site. At that point, with Daniel's blessing, the UGA Atmospheric Sciences Program incorporated AthensGaWeather into an existing seminar course on weather forecasting. Since August 2018, the rebooted AthensGaWeather site has provided green-screen videos, weekday forecasts, and severe weather updates for over 17,000 followers in a 19-county area in northeast Georgia. In this presentation we discuss the integration of an existing forecasting class with a multiplatform media approach to broadcast meteorology; our collaboration with the UGA New Media Institute to develop apps for accessing the site; and our efforts to expand this project during the 2019-20 academic year.