As a correspondent, you become an author of this site and can contribute:
- Weather observations & analysis in real-time
- Pictures & video of ongoing weather from your community, submitted during & immediately after weather breaks in your region, appearing in real-time
- Have a thought on what's happening with a current or forecasted weather event? Post it & have your analysis and forecast seen worldwide.
- Post live, streaming webcams of current weather conditions
- Have your content viewed by major media outlets, as well as the private and public sector
APPLY TO BECOME A CORRESPONDENT BY FILLING OUT THIS EMAIL FORM. YOUR EMAIL AND INFORMATION WILL NOT BE SHARED WITH ANY THIRD PARTIES. THIS SITE IS DESIGNED SOLELY TO SHARE WEATHER INFORMATION. APPLY FOR AS MANY REGIONS AS APPLICABLE.
After a confirmation email, you will receive an invitation to become a correspondent, and will be approved for posts.
Why We Treasure Our Correspondents:
Our correspondents are the heart of this operation. NATIONALWEATHERONLINE.COM, was established with the intent of providing an outlet for real-time observations - through words, images, and videos - from individuals in the center of weather, as it's happening. So often we see only what is picked and chosen...not the entirety of the story, and not what it's like for the majority of us where weather is happening.
NATIONALWEATHERONLINE.COM hopes to change that. The goal is to get real observations out to the general public, and available to the mass media as well as public and private sector organizations.
So why become a correspondent? Frankly, because having reliable individuals committed to reporting actual weather in your location is the only way accurate coverage of weather events can ever be attained. As you and other users spread the word of this site, we fully expect it to be a place where worldwide media outlets will be able to find accurate reports, images and video to air, giving credit to YOU, the correspondent (see usage policy). But beyond the big events and beyond publicizing your observations, the hope is that this will be a site folks can come to 24 hours a day, select a region, and see what's happening - whether the weather is fair or foul.
With all of our dedication, this site will provide a viable alternative to the usual shot of a reporter standing in a windswept rain, while just a mile away neighborhoods are being flooded, or brushing snow from the ground to show us how much fluff has fallen, while around the block a major accident has unfolded. Of course, NATIONALWEATHERONLINE.COM hopes our correspondents will contribute on both sides of the coin - some of us will contribute images of what it's like as a tornado swept through our neighborhood, or give description of the damage that remains, while others a few miles away will post awe-inspiring images from the storm outside of its destruction. On the other side of the country, a correspondent posts images of gorgeous sunshine on the first beach day of the year as cool spring temperatures finally break. You get the idea here.
But there's more. Too often, the ideas of professionals and amateurs alike are discarded as to how a weather event may unfold. Though one of the biggest rules a meteorologist learns is "consensus is best," meaning the minds of many averaged together should beat the mind of one, it's only those who are the mouthpieces that give the forecast to the public. Some of these are educated meteorologists, some are weather presenters. With only a select few "mouthpieces," this can leave others with very good forecast ideas out in the dark. It's our hope that those of our correspondents who have a meteorology background will feel free to post analysis and even predictions when they believe something is being horribly overlooked by the mainstream media. Of course, we realize these predictions will vary, and encourage users to always defer to the National Weather Service or one of our recommended outlets for forecast information.
AN IMPORTANT POINT: NATIONALWEATHERONLINE.COM is NOT a political forum. Please keep your posts relative to weather events. This is not to stifle free speech, but rather to maintain direction for the site - there are many other internet sites that offer forums for discussion of a political nature, and perhaps we will in time, but correspondents should stick to the weather in their actual posts. Also, it should go without saying that any inappropriate language, images or posts will result in immediate dismissal as a correspondent.
Unfortunately, at this point NATIONALWEATHERONLINE.COM cannot pay our correspondents, as this is a free-access site for one and all. But we hope you will be as equally excited as we are to share accurate and honest information with the public, have a place where people can rely on to find out what's really going on in the weather, and have media across the world picking up on your work, and airing it with full credit (see usage policy).
