Meteorologists criticize X for posting a community note suspecting a false hurricane's predicted course, saying 'people could die'



The tropical depression that formed on June 28, 2024, subsequently developed into Hurricane Beryl, and as of July 2, 2024, Beryl has reached

Category 5 status, the strongest of the five categories. Weather forecasting company AccuWeather posted a forecast of the hurricane's path on June 28, 2024 on X (formerly Twitter), but a community note was added to the post, suspecting that it was misinformation by a third party.

X-labeled AccuWeather's Hurricane Beryl map as misinformation. Meteorologists worry it could cost lives | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-beryl-forecast-social-media-map-misinformation-b2572199.html



As of July 2, 2024, the hurricane's central pressure is 938 hPa, and the maximum wind speed near the center is about 70 m/s, moving with tremendous force through the Caribbean Sea. This hurricane is said to have broken the record for the fastest time in history for a hurricane to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the North Atlantic, which was held by Hurricane

Emily in 2005, which caused extensive damage from the Caribbean to Mexico.

In fact, the hurricane caused severe damage in Grenada and other countries, and Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said, 'The islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique were destroyed over a wide area. Carriacou was reduced to a platter within just 30 minutes of the hurricane's approach.'



AccuWeather published a hurricane forecast on June 28, 2024 with X as a warning to the public. However, this post was accompanied by a community note that said, 'Official hurricane forecasts come only from the National Hurricane Center (NHC). This 'prediction' has little data to back it up and is likely a false alarm.'




AccuWeather, which has a team of about 100 meteorologists, makes predictions based on data from NOAA, NASA, the NHC, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According to John Porter, senior vice president and chief meteorologist at AccuWether, AccuWeather's hurricane path predictions were almost identical to the NHC's predictions, but were about 30 hours earlier than other weather organizations.

'AccuWeather released its forecast ahead of government updates in order to spread life-saving information as quickly as possible,' Porter said.

'The community note attached to our post is false and is causing confusion at a time when minutes can mean the difference between life and death,' AccuWeather CEO Steve Smith said. 'The community feature is a distraction from AccuWeather, the world's leading weather forecasting company, and is providing information that saves people's lives.'



AccuWeather executives said they reached out to X about the community note but did not receive a response. AccuWeather is calling on X and other social media platforms to reevaluate how they moderate posts from experts, including AccuWeather.

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