For many, the go-to source of information on the weather might be social media, specifically the rapid-fire information fed through Twitter.
However, a direct line from Environment Canada, the national agency tasked with issuing official information on the weather doesn’t exist - the agency doesn't use the micro-blogging site.
“There are technical issues,” Ken MacDonald with Environment Canada told CTV News. “If we overload the system, we would get identified as spam.”
Officially, weather watches and warnings can only be issued by Environment Canada – each year, about 15,000 are sent out – and officials are working with Twitter to find a solution.
“They all come out of one server, so we have to make sure the anti-spam detection systems don’t think that is a malicious use of Twitter,” Macdonald said.
Plus, as CTV’s Josh Classen pointed out, Environment Canada deals with warnings for all regions, while most users might not want information for areas other than their own.
“You only really care about warnings for your area,” Classen said. “Environment Canada has to deal with warnings for the entire country.”
Meanwhile, officials said they are testing social media tools to find out how they can be best used to warn Canadians – they hope to start work on Twitter in the near future.
With files from Amanda Anderson
