How the 2017 California Wildfires Unfolded on Twitter

How the 2017 California wildﬁres unfolded on Twitter

Jim Moffitt Senior Partner Engineer - Twitter @snowman Twitter and early-warning systems Twitter 101 Core Twitter characteristics • Public • Real-time • Micro-blogging, 280 characters • Mobile-focused • Sharing links to other sources • Native photos and videos • Notifications { What is a Tweet? "created_at": "Fri Jan 23 06:05:03 +0000 2015", "id": 558505672326012928, "id_str": "558505672326012928", "text": "All the eforts of @petajkt are paying of during this time of Jakarta flooding...", "source": "Twitter Web Client", "truncated": false, "in_reply_to_status_id": null, "in_reply_to_status_id_str": null, "in_reply_to_user_id": null, "in_reply_to_user_id_str": null, "in_reply_to_screen_name": null, "user": { "id": 17200003, "id_str": "17200003", "name": "Jim ❄ ☃� ", "screen_name": "snowman", "location": "MN ⇨ all over ⇨ CO", "url": null, "description": "family, travel, music, snow, urban farming, photography, coding, weather, hydrology, early-warning systems. From Minnesota, live in Colorado.", "translator_type": "regular", "protected": false, "verified": false, "followers_count": 810, "friends_count": 487, "listed_count": 39, "favourites_count": 2642, "statuses_count": 1811, "created_at": "Wed Nov 05 23:06:37 +0000 2008", "utc_ofset": -21600, "time_zone": "Mountain Time (US & Canada)", "geo_enabled": true, "lang": "en", "contributors_enabled": false, "is_translator": false, "profile_background_color": "C0DEED", "profile_background_image_url": "http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_background_images/ 846867852/0962a373696e2080d26659b920880fc8.jpeg", Audiences tune in during events Total Rain (Inches) Sep-10 16 12 4 8 Sep-11 Sep-12 Sep-13 Sep-14 Sep-15 Sep-16 Sep-17 New Followers 6000 3000 4500 1500 Sep-10 @NWSBoulder @BoulderEOM Sep-11 Sep-12 Sep-13 Sep-14 Sep-15 Sep-16 Sep-17 December 2017 California wildfires

• Thomas Fire - Ventura County - December 4, 2017 • Creek Fire - Los Angeles County - December 5, 2017 • Rye Fire - Los Angeles - December 5, 2017 • Skirball fire - Los Angeles County - December 6, 2017 • Lilac Fire - San Diego County - December 7, 2017 December 2017 California wildﬁres

• Thomas Fire - 281,893 acres; 1,343 structures damaged and destroyed;

1 firefighter and 1 civilian deaths

• Creek Fire - 15, 619 acres; 204 structures

• Rye Fire - 6,049 acres; 9 structures

• Lilac Fire - 4,100 acres; 221 structures

• Skirball fire - 422 acres; 18 structures Tweets of interest

• December 3 - 17, 2017

• Accounts with California specified as ‘home’ that Tweet an event keyword with photos and videos.

• Tweets geo-tagged near LA and Ventura County with photos and videos.

• Tweets that mention an event keyword and include an Instagram link.

• Event keywords: (fire (Thomas OR Creek OR Rye OR Lilac OR Skirball) OR wildfires OR fires OR smoke OR emergency) Tweets of interest

• Tweets with specific hashtags

• #Wildfires OR #ThomasFire OR #CreekFire OR #RyeFire OR #SkirballFire OR #LilacFire

• (#SantaBarbara OR #California OR #Ventura) (fire OR fires OR wildfires) • Tweets from specific accounts

• @CAL_Fire OR @VCFD OR @NWSLosAngeles OR @VCWatershed OR @CountyVentura OR @CountyofSB OR @VenturaOES OR @CaltransDist7 OR @VCScanner OR @LATimes Tweets of interest

(fire (thomas OR Creek OR rye OR lilac OR Skirball) OR wildfires OR fires OR smoke OR emergency) -is:retweet -has:geo (has:media) (profile_region:California)

(#ThomasFire OR #CreekFire OR #RyeFire OR #SkirballFire OR #LilacFire OR #Wildfires OR ((#SantaBarbara OR #California OR #Ventura) (fire OR fires OR wildfires))) - is:retweet

(fire (thomas OR Creek OR rye OR lilac OR Skirball) OR wildfires OR fires OR smoke OR emergency) -is:retweet -has:geo -has:media (url:instagram) (profile_region:California)"

(from:VCscanner OR from:CountVentura OR from:CAL_FIRE OR from:LATimes OR from:venturawaterCA OR to:venturawaterCA OR from:VCFD OR to:VCFD OR from:VCWatershed OR to:VCWatershed OR from:VenturaOES OR to:VenturaOES OR from:NWSLosAngeles OR from:countyofSB OR from:CaltransDist7) -is:retweet

(fire (thomas OR Creek OR rye OR lilac OR Skirball) OR wildfires OR fires OR smoke OR emergency) -is:retweet has:media (bounding_box:[-119.49000 33.67000 -119.14000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-119.14000 33.67000 -118.79000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-118.79000 33.67000 -118.44000 33.97000] OR bounding_box: [-118.44000 33.67000 -118.09000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-118.09000 33.67000 -117.74000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-117.74000 33.67000 -117.39000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-117.39000 33.67000 -117.04000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-117.04000 33.67000 -116.69000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-116.69000 33.67000 -116.40000 33.97000] OR bounding_box:[-119.49000 33.97000 -119.07300 34.27000] OR bounding_box:[-119.07300 33.97000 -118.65600 34.27000] OR bounding_box:[-118.65600 33.97000 -118.23900 34.27000] OR bounding_box:[-118.23900 33.97000 -117.82200 34.27000] OR bounding_box:[-117.82200 33.97000 -117.40500 34.27000])

(fire (thomas OR Creek OR rye OR lilac OR Skirball) OR wildfires OR fires OR smoke OR emergency) -is:retweet has:media(bounding_box:[-117.40500 33.97000 -116.98800 34.27000] OR bounding_box:[-116.98800 33.97000 -116.57100 34.27000] OR bounding_box:[-116.57100 33.97000 -116.40000 34.27000] OR bounding_box: [-119.49000 34.27000 -119.07160 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-119.07160 34.27000 -118.65320 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-118.65320 34.27000 -118.23480 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-118.23480 34.27000 -117.81640 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-117.81640 34.27000 -117.39800 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-117.39800 34.27000 -116.97960 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-116.97960 34.27000 -116.56120 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-116.56120 34.27000 -116.40000 34.57000] OR bounding_box:[-119.49000 34.57000 -119.07010 34.87000] OR bounding_box:[-119.07010 34.57000 -118.65020 34.87000] OR bounding_box:[-118.65020 34.57000 -118.23030 34.87000])

(fire (thomas OR Creek OR rye OR lilac OR Skirball) OR wildfires OR fires OR smoke OR emergency) -is:retweet has:media(bounding_box:[-118.23030 34.57000 -117.81040 34.87000] OR bounding_box:[-117.81040 34.57000 -117.39050 34.87000] OR bounding_box:[-117.39050 34.57000 -116.97060 34.87000] OR bounding_box: [-116.97060 34.57000 -116.55070 34.87000] OR bounding_box:[-116.55070 34.57000 -116.40000 34.87000] OR bounding_box:[-119.49000 34.87000 -119.06860 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-119.06860 34.87000 -118.64720 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-118.64720 34.87000 -118.22580 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-118.22580 34.87000 -117.80440 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-117.80440 34.87000 -117.38300 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-117.38300 34.87000 -116.96160 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-116.96160 34.87000 -116.54020 34.90000] OR bounding_box:[-116.54020 34.87000 -116.40000 34.90000]) Event data and stats

• Tweets of interest: 151,392 (December 3-17)

• Geo-tagged Tweets with native media: 8,174 (5%)

• Geo-tagged Tweets with media links: 1,724 (1%)

• 49,901 users posting public Tweets Top Hashtags

#ThomasFire 75,954

#LilacFire 24,163

#CreekFire 19,406

#SkirballFire 16,696

#California 11,680

#Wildfires 11,648

#RyeFire 8,733

#Ventura 7,574

#BreakingNews 5,690

#News 5,604 Top mentions

@CAL_Fire 1,448

@VCFD 1,211

@LAFD 1,077

@VCFD_PIO 989

@ABC7 909

@LATimes 870

@CALFireSanDiego 748

@realDonaldTrump 657

@CBSLA 636

@KEYTNC3 635 Some top links

http://readyventuracounty.org 593 https://twitter.com/wlv_investor/status/938410022538682368 324 http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=1922 211 http://www.keyt.com/news/wildfire/thomas-fire-now-100-contained/667653802 202 http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-southern-california-wildfires-live-updates-htmlstory.html 191 Some top links

Sharing information… Animal rescues

Other information from the public… Photos

Videos

Tweet Tweets 151,392 engagements Impressions 717,365,603 Engagements 29,904,927 and impressions Retweets 1,152,021 Favorites 2,163,256 Replies 122,944 URL clicks 3,061,278 User follows 7,418 User profile clicks 1,780,408 Hashtag clicks 942,282 Video views 28,166,445 Detail expands 4,144,999 Media clicks 16,527,428

Tweet Tweets 74,093 engagements Impressions 151,354,992 Engagements 5,862,038 and impressions Retweets 164,629 Favorites 309,341 Replies 27,060 URL clicks 531,211 User follows 651 User profile clicks 335,565 Hashtag clicks 199,738 Video views 3,442,961 Detail expands 864,067 Media clicks 3,428,625

Integrating Twitter into your early-warning system

• Social Media monitoring tools • TweetDeck.twitter.com • Third-party services such as DataMinr • Grow your audience • Campaigns to increase awareness • Teach your users • Sending observations to your account • Geo-tagging Tweets • Twitter Premium APIs (ﬂexible, scaleable, seasonal)

Questions?

Jim Mofﬁtt @snowman “As a hydrologist, how can I integrate Twitter for real-time communications and data exchange?” Example integrations

https://txpub.usgs.gov/txwaterdashboard/

Account Activity API

Direct Message API