You’ve marked your calendar for Shark Week, but have you heard of the week dedicated to tornados? In honor of Tornado Week, the Weather Channel is putting the public in control of the winds. More tweets = more wind. Its interns are sitting in a Twitter-powered tornado in the Weather Channel office – every mention of #tornadoweek on Twitter raises speed of the fans in the room, or the “winds” of the storm.
If the hashtag reaches one million mentions, the interns will have to endure an EF-5 tornado. Currently, the wind speed is at 121 mph and there have been more than 24.6 tweets.
Kevin Planovsky of Vert, the agency tracking the #TornadoWeek tweets, told Mashable the wind speed is effective wind speed, not actual wind speed; it is a representation of how it feels in the room.
This is a great way to utilize social media to raise awareness and get the public to tune in to your website, or in this case, week-long show series. Tornado Week features different TV specials every night this week, including Storm Riders, Truth Twisters and Space Weather. Keep tweeting to see how (if) these interns handle a full-blown tornado!