Days before the “historic” early March 2014 storm that never materialized, I came across an article on Daily Kos by Dennis Mersereau aka the Weatherdude. He accurately predicted the storm was not going to develop. Dennis went on to say that the warning was a hoax perpetrated by one man who fooled the entire country with a fake weather report (“Kevin Martin is pulling this “storm” out of his ass”) and that the fake meteorologist has done this several times already.
Dennis also shared a cautionary rule of thumb that translates to any type of social sharing. It’s a message we should all take to heart:
Please be careful what you share on social media — not everyone knows The Weather Space is a conspiracy/fake website. When people believe this stuff and it doesn’t happen, they attribute it to meteorologists being liars instead of the work of a huckster.
Be careful what you read, be careful whose sites you click, and cross-reference the hysteria before you share or retweet it on social media.
I didn’t share the Kos article, wanting to see if Dennis would prove more accurate than the dire predictions. As there was no storm, the Weatherdude has gained an admiring new supporter. I mean wow, accurate weather forecasting and great social commentary in one package. It’s too much to resist.
Dennis shares more good advice:
“If you want to follow real weather information on social media, follow me on Facebook and Twitter. (How’s that for a shameless plug?)”
In my opinion, you earned that plug Dennis. God bless.