Some Twitter users might not have been surprised to wake up to a text or email about canceled classes Monday morning.
Those following @ForecastAthens received one of the most accurate weather predictions Sunday night, made by Ohio University student Brice Gottesman, a fifth-year senior studying meteorology. He started the Athens Weather Guru Twitter account, with the handle @ForecastAthens, last year.
As of Wednesday, the account’s page has acquired 1,860 Twitter followers, including Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones.
“It’s amazing what ends up becoming popular on social media,” Hall-Jones said. “They’re adorable.”
When looking at weather reports before Monday’s closure, Hall-Jones said the Twitter page predicted double the amount of snow of her weather app, which predicted only one to two inches.
“I believe my predictions are most times better than The Weather Channel app,” Gottesman said.
Using models from the National Weather Service, Gottesman utilizes his meteorological expertise — which is based on his experience working internships with FOX19 and Local 12 WKRC-TV Cincinnati — to create his own forecast for Athens. He discusses predictions with colleagues and professors, but ultimately runs the Twitter page alone.
“My motto is usually … the only person you can trust is yourself,” Gottesman said, explaining the subjective nature of weather forecasting.
The Athens Weather Guru has also garnered attention outside of Athens. Both Eric Elwell, a meteorologist with WBNS-10TV Columbus, and Josh Fitzpatrick, a meteorologist with West Virginia’s WSAZ NewsChannel 3 and myZtv, have tweeted at the page.
The Twitter page has become a ceaseless job for Gottesman, who works hard to update the page while also keeping up with his studies.
“I think it’s a good thing to have just another outlet for local people to get information,” said Kyle Clem, a second-year graduate student studying polar climatology and the associate director for OU’s Scalia Laboratory for Atmospheric Analysis.
Clem said Scalia Laboratory recently considered creating its own Twitter account, which should “hopefully” be up and running by the summer.
Gottesman, who is set to graduate this May, says he’s unsure what will happen to the page, but is considering passing ownership of the account along to students working at the Scalia Laboratory.
“We (meteorologists) love the weather,” Gottesman said. “That’s why we do it.”
@Dinaivey
db794812@ohiou.edu
