News & Press Release
Weathernews Makes Presentation to American Meteorological Society on Mobile and Social Networks Applied to Disaster Mitigation:
From Local Thunderstorms to the Great East Japan Earthquake
Weathernews Inc. (Head Office: Minato Ward Tokyo. CEO: Chihito Kusabiraki) participated in the American Meteorological Society’s 39th Conference on Warning & Communications in Oklahoma on June 23rd. Director Tomohiro Ishibashi gave a presentation entitled, Supporter-driven Risk Communication: From Thunderstorms to Earthquakes. In his presentation, Ishibashi spoke about the application of mobile and social networks to the Great East Japan Earthquake in March and forecasting local thunderstorms in the summer.
Attendees at the conference learned that Weathernews’ 90% success rate predicting local thunderstorms was due to the contributions of a nationwide network of over 30,000 “Supporters” who send pictures and weather reports with their mobile phones during the peak season. Weathernews applied the same social networking approach in March to help mitigate the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and following tsunami.
As part of his presentation, Ishibashi also shared an online map of GENSAI (Disaster Mitigation) reports from Supporters, and Survey Results from over 80,000 people following the disaster. The presentation was enthusiastically received by attendees and other presenters from the academic and commercial meteorology community who gathered to share information at the conference in Oklahoma from around the globe.
You can experience Ishibashi’s presentation is available at the American Meteorological Society Conference on Weather Warnings and Communication Website here