weather - Social Media Week New York (SMWNYC) - MAY 4

This post was penned by our partner Poncho the weather cat as a piece of a multi-part series. Poncho is a new weather service that delivers customizable weather forecasts daily via email and text message, helping you plan everything from your commute to your outfit.

If the #Blizzardof2015 taught us anything it’s that people love talking about the weather. Every time there’s an extreme weather extravaganza (#weathervaganza? make it happen, Twitter), the Internet lights up like a disco ball at a high-powered rave. Is it going to rain? I love the rain! No, the rain sucks! Why is it snowing? Is it the end times? Why are weatherpeople so full of lies?!

There are a couple types of people who come tweeting out of the woodwork whenever it rains, snows, or is windier than expected. Here are some of them.

The Worrier

The Worrier takes the news seriously and may or may not have elbowed someone in the grocery store for the last can of Campbell’s chicken corn chowder. They’re prepared, though some people might say overly so.

The Joker

The complete opposite of The Worrier, these folks are more interested in memes than storm preparation. The Joker’s Twitter account is full of wisecracks about Chinese takeout, pictures of vodka, and Frozen Photoshops of varying quality.

The Denier

The Denier is too cool for earmuffs. These tweeters are contrarians who would wear a pair of shorts just to prove that a polar vortex isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. What results is basically a weird humblebrag that is for some reason weather-related.

The Anti-Denier

The Anti-Denier is pretty much just sick of hearing the Denier’s posturing and cooler-than-thou attitude, to be honest.

The FOMOs

The FOMOs are afraid of, well, missing out. These are people in sunny parts of the country who have never had to shovel a driveway before.

The Optimist

Finally, like during all other Internet events, there are those who try to stay positive. You can count on the Optimist for tweets about how beautiful the snow is or reminders to be thankful toward city workers.

It always starts the same: Tweets about how cold/rainy/snowy/hot/etc. it is provoke other tweets about how it’s not THAT cold/rainy/snowy/hot/etc. A cold front of complaints swirls together with excitement about being part of a “historic” storm. Memes emerge and then recede into the atmosphere. This is your brain on Twitter, and this is Twitter on #weather — and everyone on Twitter has an opinion and is trying to find like-minded communities where they can commiserate, complain, and celebrate.

These collective weather experiences almost mimic the natural phenomena they’re commenting on. Unlike weather patterns, though, these types of social behavior are more predictable.

About Poncho

Poncho is your best weather buddy. Every morning he’ll send you a sassy text or email telling you what’s up with the day. Frizzy hair? Bad allergies? Rainy days to train delays, Poncho’s got you covered. Sign up here for personalized weather reports every morning, tailored to your routine, delivered by email or text message.

Remember the great #Blizzardof2015? The one De Blasio shut down the subways for? The one we were told by many a weather forecaster (myself included) would blanket us in over two feet of snow?

If it’s still a distant memory, let me remind you really quick:

That one! Juno, they called it. We all worried, work was cancelled for most of us, and toilet paper flew off the shelves faster than you could say, “Did you hear about this blizzard?”

But of course, just because you’re a blizzard doesn’t mean you can please everybody.

As usual with these types of things, the blizzard turned out to be weaker than the hype. Which is great! That is what you want! Unless you are one of these folks, who were equally unimpressed by the blizzard hype AND seemingly disappointed over not having to dig themselves out of their homes:

The consequences of a bite-sized winter storm in lieu of an all-you-can-weather blizzard buffet was clear. The entire experience left people with an overall feeling of, “Holy inaccurate forecast, Batman!” People were no longer asking whether or not kale is a survival staple but rather whom to trust during the next serious weather event — and even contrite weathermen couldn’t stop people from doubting.

Who do we look to when we need answers about whether we should plan to have the next day off? Social media is, of course, a huge part of the answer. Even sources that were wrong about how much snow we would get were still useful in relaying government notices and in-case-of-emergency information. What became crazy clear, though, was that not all social media is created equal. Some accounts hyped up the fear factor, describing the storm as some kind of Frozen meets Michael Bay affair. Others were more interested in presenting the facts, or actually answering the question of why the storm was so overhyped in certain areas. As always with the Internet, it’s a matter of curating reliable sources.

So who to follow in future times of need? Follow my bff Eric Holthaus, “America’s weather predicting boyfriend” and meteorologist at Slate. Follow the Capitol Weather Gang and The Weather Channel, for weather updates both enthusiastically specific and corporately broad. Follow the department of transportation, your friends, your local bodega if you’re lucky enough to have a bodega you can tweet at. Follow me, for local weather updates with a bit of sass! But don’t follow anyone outside your city, lest you become disappointed by how much snow they get in comparison (cough, Boston).

About Poncho

Tag: weather

The 6 Types Of People Who Tweet About The Weather