Jamaica Observer Online, in association with a number of partners, has produced its 2024 Hurricane Season Guide. This is one of the many stories in the supplement which can be accessed here.

Arguing that there’s a serious weather information gap in Jamaica, a passionate meteorology enthusiast is taking the island’s social media community by storm with unique and frequent weather forecasts that have earned him followers and plaudits online but a side-eye from the national authority.

The 30-year-old man behind the popular social media account, Weather Jamaica, says he’s dedicated to providing timely, accurate and frequent weather updates, filling what he said was a void left by the experts.

“What inspired me was the gap, the definite gap, the ridiculousness that goes on in the weather community and the lack thereof. We don’t really have that kind of weather community in terms of the Government or the admin. When you look at the Met Service (Meteorological Service of Jamaica), you know how dem stay already, they wait until everything done gone bad already before they actually make a post. When the place done flood out already that’s when they actually issue a flash flood warning,” the content creator, who asked not to be identified by name, told Observer Online.

Despite not holding formal qualifications in meteorology, the content creator said his “accuracy” has gained him a large following.

“My qualifications have nothing to do with weather at all. We don’t need a bachelor’s degree in order to be doing this and be so accurate at it. The followers, the large platform actually shows. Most of the time, the weather prediction actually comes to fruition,” he said, disclosing that he actually holds a degree in education.

Weather Jamaica is active on most social media platforms including YouTube (more than 17,000 subscribers), Facebook (3,200 followers), TikTok (28,300 followers), Instagram (29,000 followers) and Twitter (33,100 followers).

The content creator said his passion for weather started at a young age and combined with his skills in computing, he decided to create an interactive and frequent weather update platform.

“I remember I saw another account named Jamaica Weather and I said I need to do something like that but a bit more interactive and more frequent than what they were doing and Met Service were doing.”

Managing the account single-handedly, he relies on friends and resources to gather information. To provide comprehensive and accurate weather updates, the creator said he uses multiple sources including external radars, data from the US National Hurricane Center and satellite images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

“We use a lot of satellite images, we use doppler radar images, we get information from multiple weather sources. It’s a number of websites out there… all of those sites show all of the visuals because we need the visuals to map out exactly what we are seeing.

“But it’s not only looking at the models…It’s a number of things. You have to look at wind speed, you have to look at wind direction…It’s more to it than just looking at the supercomputer model…It’s a lot of complexities and I understand why the Met Service is so reserved with their predictions because trust me, weather prediction is very difficult,” he explained, adding that while he strived for accuracy, he wasn’t without flaw.

“I think I am getting it down after all these years but I still can be wrong sometimes,” he said.

Weather Jamaica’s strong presence on social media has resulted in lots of people viewing it as an authority in meteorology. However, on several occasions the account’s forecasts have appeared not to have sat well with the Met Service, the latest being in May when the state agency apparently dismissed as “misleading” a Weather Jamaica report about an expected rise in temperature levels and sought to clarify the development.

The creator is making it clear that he is not Jamaica’s national weather authority. According to him, the only reason he does not have a disclaimer in his social media bios is because of an inconvenient word limit.

“I have never ever said I was affiliated with them. I am not trying to be Met office…Is not like I want to bash them but they need to do better. They can’t just wait until the day before the Saharan Dust comes before they make a post or just post just because my post goes viral,” he said.

His young, fresh and enthusiastic approach to weather reporting has been well-received, with many appreciating the energy he brings compared to traditional broadcasts.

“I try to make it as enthusiastic as possible. Just last week somebody was telling me that they liked how I read the weather with enthusiasm.”

Balancing his weather updates with a 9-5, he ensures he is always connected to the internet to provide real-time posts.

“I have to be running a whole schedule, a time table. I have a next job and I have to find time. I make sure I am always connected to the internet, so if my internet at home is down, I have internet on my two smart phones so if anything happens I can post. If I am in a bus, because I don’t have a vehicle yet, still working on that, I can post.”

For the personality behind the platform, his anonymity is crucial.

“It’s very important because I don’t want people in my business. I like the anonymousness of it all. I like it when I am in my work group and when you look, my thing a go viral and they are posting it in the group. I want it to stay anonymous because I feel like if they know I run the page, dem not even share that.”

Looking ahead, he hopes to grow Weather Jamaica into a significant venture.

“I hope it gets big enough for me to make so much money from it, especially from the YouTube platform, that I can actually formulate a whole building named Weather Jamaica… So, when people are passing, they say ‘Weather Jamaica is over there’ unlike Half Way Tree Road with Met Office. People actually go there anymore?”

And the 30-year-old still has hopes of getting formal training in meteorology.

“It is not too late to go to the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology or one of the universities in Florida that does meteorology. It’s not too late but I am still working on it,” he said.