Using Video to Communicate Weather Hazards

As our broadcast television partners have known for decades, video is an effective way to communicate critical weather information in a timely matter. For many years, the National Weather Service (NWS) was slow to fully utilize video to communicate weather hazards. This was partially due to hardware, software, and logistical challenges including bandwidth restrictions at weather offices and lack of funds to purchase video editing software. In recent years, however NWS offices began experimenting with and using different forms of video to help get life-saving messages about hazardous weather out to the public. Sometimes this is as simple as tweeting a video clip or posting a recorded weather briefing to YouTube. Lately, the NWS started testing live video feeds via social media platforms. Since weather is a constantly moving phenomenon, video has a unique ability in communicating motion and development, that words and static pictures cannot do. There are numerous video formats and platforms available for a local NWS office to utilize. Our presentation will discuss how the NWS office in El Paso, TX uses video. We will highlight the subjects that the office has covered including severe weather outlooks, school education and communicating with critical partners. We will also discuss the different video platforms used, and the underserved groups and bilingual communities that has been reached.