NWS Chicago on Facebook and Twitter

 As the National Weather service continues to seek new ways to reach its partners and the public, the Chicago National Weather Service has expanded its presence within the social media world. We are now on Twitter and can be found with our Twitter handle, @NWSChicago, and also continue to maintain a strong presence on Facebook, US National Weather Service Chicago Illinois.  

www.facebook.com/US.NationalWeatherService.Chicago.gov

twitter.com/NWSChicago

We look forward to both of these social media outlets as supplements to our many ways of providing weather/water information to the public and our partners. Our presence on Twitter will aim at helping to disseminate life saving information; increase the public's understanding of weather, water, and climate; and heighten awareness through education and encouragement of public response/action.

The frequency of updates posted to this feed may vary and is not guaranteed.

 

Followers should not rely on this service as the primary means of receiving alerts/warnings of hazardous weather. NWS alerts/warnings are available on NOAA Weather Radio and our official website: http://www.weather.gov/chicago.

Responses to timeline posts are made on a time-available basis and may be extremely limited during periods of severe weather.

 

Twitter

What will be tweeted:

  • General forecast (and impact) information
  • Heads up messages (i.e., weather stories, graphicasts)
  • Long-fused warnings/watches/advisories (i.e., Winter Storm Warning/Watch, Wind Advisory)
  • Non-weather emergency messages from EMs
  • Weather/Climate facts
  • Outreach/educational/post event information.

 What will not be tweeted:

  • Short-fused warnings (i.e., Tornado/Thunderstorm Warnings)
  • Pre-decisional Information

NWS Chicago will be using and monitoring predefined hashtags as well as event driven hashtags.

Hashtags:

  • #ilwx  for weather reports in Illinois
  • #inwx  for weather reports in Indiana
  • #nwsLOT  to send us weather observations within our County Warning Area 

 

Hashtag Examples

Above normal temps today turning sharply colder this evening #ilwx
Clouds to exit this afternoon with a warming trend expected through this weekend #inwx
Just measured 2.5 inches of snow here in Gurnee, IL #nwsLOT
Experiencing hail the size of pennies here in Rochelle, IL. #nwsLOT
Peak wind gust of 65 mph in Pontiac, IL. #nwsLOT
  #Sandy has now produced a tie for the 2nd largest storm peak wave ever recorded at the south buoy: 20.3 ft.)

 NWS Chicago will also be monitoring the experimental Twitter Storm Reports:  www.nws.noaa.gov/stormreports/

All information regarding this experimental service can be found at the above link including the use of the hashtag, #wxreports

 
USA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal to all federal, state and local government web resources and services.