Jennifer Watson - Weathering The Storm

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Do you ever wonder how to start storm chasing? How dangerous is storm chasing? You can find out all those answers as well as how to prepare everyone around you when a storm is coming.

Weather Expert, Social Media Influencer and Storm Chaser Jennifer Watson gives you inside information on weather prep and how to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Jennifer also provides helpful and affordable items you can invest in for your family & loved one’s safety in the future.

This Full video episode available for free at: https://rebrand.ly/JWatson

Products mentioned on this episode available at: https://rebrand.ly/WatsonWeatherList

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Full Episode Transcript:

Jennifer Watson - Weathering The Storm

Have you ever wished you'd been more prepared in the event of a weather emergency, then get ready? Because this episode is for you. They're expert, social media, influencer, and storm chaser. Jennifer Watson gives you insight information on weather prep and how to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Jennifer also provides helpful and affordable items. You can invest in for your family and loved ones safety in the future.

Jim, I think what we should do first for those people that, have been under a rock and don't know who Jennifer Watson it is. I think, we're going to embarrass her a little bit, have her talk a little bit about herself folks. It's not just Jim and Chris hanging out in their living room talk and like you have a true Emmy-winning meteorologists.

That's here. weather channel a Gora Paul's Jennifer, if you would just please give us a, you're, quickly the people they want to know, who they're talking to, who they're listening to, who they're watching tonight. Oh my God. I love you guys, Chris. You're just amazing, Jim.

So are you guys are the best host ever. I think. so I'm actually a degree meteorologist that's where I got my master's degree in, in my undergrad was geography and I really loved math too. I'm like a science, math nerd. so I almost double majored in geography and math. but I was a meteorologist on camera and local TV for five years, then transitioned to the weather channel.

Where I was a content producer, I actually built the graphics and was one of the main meteorologists for one of the shows. Then I transitioned to social media and I was a social media specialist there for about four and a half years. And I also, and I transitioned from that to the social media manager of a Gore pulse now, but I.

Still do one of their shows, whether gone viral and still on there. So I consult with them and we have our season six of weather gone viral. That's going to be released later on this year. So if you're up late at night or the evening, and you're not sure what to watch and you see where they're going viral on the weather channel, you can click and I'll probably be on one of those episodes.

So I like to geek out a lot. I also have a storm front freak podcast and weather podcasts. It was several other meteorologists where we get to geek out about weather too. So social media and weather are both of my passions, which I love very dearly. I think they fit well together, right? Because we like to watch this stuff.

whether it's tweeting about weather or in fact. When I was in a law, should we start with hurricanes, Jennifer? I was a victim of hurricane Florence. That's one of the reasons why we're all now neighbors in the Atlanta Georgia area. But, I was telling everybody they're like, how do we communicate as like use Twitter?

everybody was wanting to go download another app, but Twitter is, makes it so easy to communicate. But, let's, I, tell us a little bit about what's going on right now. Jennifer, you have a little bit of a, whether, Some weather stuff for us, we can do a weather briefing.

so for those of us, in case you're watching this a little bit later on, this is August 11th, so we're right in the middle to a record breaking hurricane season, which is pretty crazy. we had so many record broken records, broken, all ready, and the peak of the season is not until mid September. And I'm talking about.

The Atlantic hurricane season, we have the Pacific hurricane season as well, but Delana is the one that's been extremely active. we now have what could be a Josephine. I believe in the Atlantic. We have another system that we are watching. That's likely going to develop if that storm develops before August 22nd.

it'll be the earliest that the J named storm form. So we're just on pace for a record breaking season. And it's the first time that Noah, they reissued. Their forecast for hurricanes for this year. It's the first time they've issued up to 25 named storms. They've never done that before. So the thing is we're anticipating a very active year now, does that mean that all these storms are going to make landfall?

No, not necessarily. You can have a very active year and all the storms say out to sea or major hurricanes. Stay out to see, but we are likely going to see some major hurricanes and I believe they're predicting at least three to six liter hurricanes that's category three or higher. So it's scary right now.

And when we're going through COVID-19. No, it's you want to be socially distanced. And the main thing, when it comes to storm preparedness is you can't rely on government or really anything else. Yes. They will be there to support, but when it comes to mass destruction, so many thousands or millions of people impacted, they just can't help everyone at the same time.

It's really, the preparedness is up to you to protect you and your family. First, because it may take days even weeks for, city officials, government officials, to be able to have the manpower to help everyone. So that's the most critical thing. And so I'm a storm chaser as well as, a meteorologist.

So we're going to talk about a couple of different things, different products to keep your family safe, make sure you are prepared. And there's some really cool new ones now, that are awesome. Even if the apocalypse happened, you guys would be okay. Let's talk about this. Product that Jennifer brought to our attention, which I think I almost want to go out and buy one.

And that is the, I don't know if I'm saying it but is it like the low Gaea five and one Y weather station? Indoor outdoor that. Wow. tell us about this, Jennifer. So this is for the weather geek in you. If you have a weather geek, there's always a weather geek in the family somewhere.

what I love about this is when you think about whether there's a lot of, microclimates. And you really see this in the summertime that you're experiencing right now, where you see it raining down the street, but not over you. And you're like, how did that happen? There was something in that era that was more unstable down the streets than where you are that caused that.

And so I'm always fascinated. With what is the temperature drop once it rains, or if I see a friend moving through a know, a friend is going to move through the wind shifts. And so this is like your own personal little weather station. and it's, you can teach your kids about the weather with this as well, but it's truly digital.

You can look at the Dew point temperature and the actual temperature of the different wind speeds and all sorts of other atmospheric conditions. Now this is probably one of the lesser expensive you can have. One that costs several hundreds of dollars, but this is a basic one that I love. And I think does a really good job when it comes to the digital outdoor weather station that you want to have at your house.

So you can monitor the weather and you can even, teach your kids and teach tabs on it. So during the COVID atmosphere, or if you just teach your kids at home, your school, I'm at home, this is great for science, right? You can teach them about science, about the weather. As different fronts smooth through.

So this is one of my favorites and there's also payment plans with this as well on, it's got an almost five star rating, which is really good when it comes to any kind of products. So if you're a geek and you want to pay attention to the weather where it is over your house, Or you want to help teach the weather to your kids.

And this is a perfect product for that. I love that because it's direct for yourself. it's very low it's hyperlocalized, whenever we're, you're watching television and everything, you have to keep it somewhat general. Obviously this is like in your very specific area.

And I also love how you made that about. Teaching your kids, this kind of stuff. it's super interesting and fun as well as opposed to just being some scary thing, because a hurricane is coming or a tornado is coming or like whatever, type of deal. So this is great. I love this stuff.

It's even amazing even here, and it's, it seems like maybe, and maybe that's why the weather channel is located here in Atlanta. You can have. Crazy storms upward Chris lives. And we don't get a dropdown here. And it's like, where did it come from? Right when you're creating a 70 forecast, it can fluctuate between like even 10 to 15 degrees across your viewing area.

So having a seven forecast for just Atlanta. No, it's going to vary, especially once you live in a specific location for five to 10 years, you start to understand, okay, it's always going to be a little bit cooler here or a little bit warmer based on that 70 forecast. like you said, Chris, it's hyper-local, there are micro-scale things that impact the weather locally within towns, within neighborhoods that can make big impacts when it comes to how a storm is impacted by you.

and since we're talking about Atlanta, The Southwest portion of Atlanta, is known as the mini tornado alley in Atlanta because storms tend to produce tornadoes as they go over the Southwest portion of the region, which is fascinating. And it's likely due to a little bit of mountainous terrain down over that, that area.

which is intriguing, but yeah, so weather station is awesome. And I like the full color led display. Obviously, as technology has improved over the past 10, 15 years, you get cooler and cooler things. So this is one of those, it's a decent price. and it's a good system. And so this can be something for your Christmas holiday wishlist that you can put on.

So yeah, remember that, Chris. So I'll be looking for that.

Jennifer, something that I don't know when this started to, we talk about the name storms when it comes to hurricanes, but even now winter storms have now started to gather names. how did that all come about? So that's actually something that's purely created by the weather channel.

So over in Europe, they actually name high and low pressure systems. and each one gets a designated female or male name. So naming storms other than hurricanes is not a new thing on the globally. they do that a lot in Europe. And basically it was something where, one of our winter weather experts, Tom Mizell, who worked at the national weather service in Buffalo.

When you work for over 30 years, he dealt with a lot of like effects snow. And those are very micro scale events where you get these very thin bands of snow that maybe you're only three miles wide, or even a half mile wide and three miles long, very thin. And He actually helped create the boss kit, which is like a way we look at different weather models as a meteorologist, but he wanted, we wanted to create something at when we were at the weather channel.

And this was, other meteorologists trying to figure out how can we raise awareness to really impactful winter storms that could cause a higher threat of, potentially damaging property taking lives. And so naming storms has a threshold kind of like hurricanes in a little bit of a way, but it's something truly unique to the weather channel.

And I think we, the weather channel would love for it to become, governments are, more widespread. but it would take a while, for, in a political setting for something like that to get past. So it's the weather channel's way of making sure that people know that, okay, this particular storm is going to be a big one.

So you need to prepare for it because there's always little, disturbances, low pressure systems that could produce snow, or maybe even a little bit of freezing rain, but it's the big ones that will really impact travel. cities could cause power outages that we name and there's different, reasons why we named certain storms.

So it's all about. Public safety. And it's one of those things. We always tell people don't drive over a flooded road or through a flooded road. Cause you don't know how deep it is and what do you see all the time? People are like, man, whatever, we're going to risk it. And so it's our, we're just trying to save lives, as a meteorologist that's your biggest goal and making sure people are, but as we know, when you're in a storm, power goes out.

It's inevitable. And that's one of the first things they say is that this is going to be the impact of possible power outages throughout this particular area. And I love this next item that you suggested. So talk to us about this portable charger you, recommend. So anchor is one of my favorite brands.

They're very well known for their charters. This has four and a half stars as well. That's 30,000 ratings at almost four and a half stars, which is a lot. And you could charge your phone. I'm not even sure the exact stance of my new iPhone. But probably, at least between seven and eight times, I've never had an issue with it or really lost charge.

I'm really good at charging my devices, in my chargers, but I have. Between four and five portable chargers that I travel with when I go to conferences, they're good for conferences. They're good. Maybe to keep, once everyone starts getting back to work eventually. but it's always good to keep something charged because even in a severe thunderstorm, they can pop up sometimes and it could knock out power and you're like, crap, my phone is about to die and you can charge it.

So these are great. and this one. Yes. It may be a little bit more expensive, closer to $50, but it's worth it. It don't last and it's amazing. And you have multiple different plugins too. So you can plug in multiple devices. It's not just, one device to charge. And so I would say, especially when it comes to major storm systems, like our, the rate show or, big, widespread, severe storms or hurricane where you could be out of power for days to weeks, they need one, if not two.

I would say at least two power supplies for a family. If not more, I think with the, the plug, you could actually put that in to say, example your car charger. If you get the right type of car charger and recharge his batteries so you can continue to have it. Cause yeah, sometimes it may be a while before you get internet back.

But you can still get that cell phone working. So that's definitely something you want to have. And it's critical to let your family know that you're safe. that you have a way to watch the news get information. cause a lot of times when it comes to weather, Twitter is used mostly with updates, cause it's the most timely social channel.

And so I monitor Twitter all the time for different hashtags with storms. So you're a social media expert as well. So how do, how would someone use Twitter? If they're in a storm, how would they know what hashtags to follow all of that stuff? Why, even, I guess someone who barely knows Twitter, maybe doesn't really understand, it has just has an account and doesn't really, know anything.

Oh, is that Twitter, like you said, is a useful tool to be able to communicate things. How would they do that? and that's a great question. So with the recent hurricane SIS, you would want to do hashtag hurricane SIS, hashtag SIS, and then whatever state you're in. So this is something that mostly the national weather service and meteorologists use, but it's G a w X for the state.

So the state abbreviation GA, and then WX is always the abbreviation for weather. So hashtag GAWS and then hashtag Atlanta, and then get more granular where, I'm in Woodstock. So I'd be like hashtag Woodstock. So there's a lot of there's I think at least five other Woodstocks and other States, but you want to get granular and you can follow those hashtags and search them.

And that allows you to see, people will use those hashtags and you can get updates on the different weather going on as wide as the hurricane impacting the Eastern seaboard to specifically your state in your town. And so that's what, whenever there's, a major hurricane, I will do the hashtag of the hurricane and create a whole like Twitter list for that a new column.

And monitor all those tweets and see what areas are being impacted. If I want to know specifically in Georgia, I'll do hashtag GAWS or hashtag Georgia hurricane. and you'll notice what's trending. and usually if it's a land falling hurricane, you can look, at the top 10 trending hashtags on Twitter.

And usually it's one or two, if not three of them. So that's a great question though, Chris, a very good question. That's why, when I was at the weather channel doing social media, we use Twitter over any other social media platform, because you would not post it for you to warning on Facebook with the algorithm where you could see it two days later.

Yeah. And that your town has a tornado warning. We would never do that. if anything, and even when it comes to. different things on Twitter, we timestamp it because you get frequent updates, especially nearing landfall. We will get hourly updates from the national hurricane center on what the progress of the storm and what it's doing.

So things get, old,...