A growing flood of AI-generated weather misinformation on social media is eroding public trust in legitimate forecasts and could put lives at risk during real emergencies, one meteorologist warned in a social media post on Friday.
With improved technology and meteorological expertise, National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters can warn people about incoming storms and other weather hazards before they arrive. However, public trust is paramount in these situations, as severe warnings often demand immediate action. With the flood of dramatic weather forecasts on social media—many of which fail to come to fruition—some meteorologists worry that people will stop taking them seriously, with dire, and even fatal, consequences.
“Fake forecasts are a persistent concern. Now, Artificial Intelligence, when purposely used to misinform and mislead, can further jeopardize public awareness and safety,” NWS spokesperson Marissa Anderson told Newsweek. “Always consider the source of your information, and obtain weather forecasts and time-sensitive alerts through known and reputable sources such as weather.gov, official NWS social media pages, and NOAA Weather Radio.”
In a post on X on Friday morning, meteorologist James Spann said “AI slop” produced by engagement farms is spreading rapidly online, often featuring dramatic but fake forecasts that rarely verify. He warned that when those predictions fail to materialize, the public increasingly blames professional meteorologists as well, reinforcing the perception that weather forecasts are “always wrong.”
In some cases, the fake forecasts strongly resemble forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Storm Prediction Center, with similar graphics and wording.
“AI SLOP: This problem will never go away, but the amount of AI ‘slop’ from social media engagement farms continues to grow exponentially. Why do I care? When dramatic, fake forecasts like these don’t verify (and they almost never do), people start lumping legitimate meteorologists in with the nonsense,” Spann wrote.
“Eventually you hear: ‘They’re always wrong.’ That loss of trust is dangerous — especially when a real warning finally does come. If people are told every week that a monster snowstorm or tornado outbreak is coming, they stop paying attention, they stop preparing, and they delay action when it actually matters.”
That loss of trust, Spann said, is especially dangerous when a genuine threat emerges. Repeated false alarms can cause people to tune out warnings, delay preparation, or fail to take protective action during high-impact events such as tornado outbreaks or major winter storms.
“False alarms numb people,” he wrote. “Tornadoes and other high impact weather events don’t forgive complacency. The most disturbing posts are the ones that show AI generated severe weather outlooks, that are very similar to the real ones issued by NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center.”
He urged social media users to think carefully before sharing weather content, emphasizing that tornadoes and other extreme events “do not forgive complacency.”
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