Currently: 9°F
When Millersville University (MU) Weather Information Center Director, Eric Horst decided to use Twitter as part of his multi-pronged approach for providing time-sensitive and important weather information, even he didn’t predict that his tweets would garner the more than 6 million views they did in 2017.
“During periods of fast-changing, impactful weather (as in winter storms), Twitter is an excellent tool to push the latest data and my nuanced Lancaster area forecast to individuals who “follow” my feed,” says Horst.
Horst, a Lancaster native and adjunct professor and staff member at MU since 1988, has seen Twitter become his primary avenue for disseminating important weather-related information in a hurry. His almost 7,000 followers have been witness to his near-365-day effort (which even included frequent weekend and holiday tweets), to communicate useful information and forecasts. Twitter’s popularity has helped the tweets Horst posts on the MU Weather page gain more than 6 million views, with 1.3 million of those views coming in December alone.
“My Twitter feed has become very popular during active periods of weather, often getting over 1 million views per month during periods of impactful weather,” says Horst.
Follow Horst on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MUweather to stay updated with weather forecasts and any urgent weather events.
