First Alert Weather Now – accurate forecasts in a digital world

QUINCY (WGEM) – Living in the Tri-States, you never want to go about your day not knowing what the weather is going to be.

Well, now you don’t have to wonder since WGEM’s First Alert Weather Now streaming service is up and running. Digital Meteorologist Whitney Williams provides up-to-date weather and forecast information to keep Tri-State residents weather aware throughout the day.

“This is a 24/7 weather streaming channel. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s 12 o’clock in the morning, or 12 o’clock in the afternoon. If you need an update on the weather, you can flip it on and it’s right there waiting for you,” said Williams.

While the Tri-States does get its fair share of severe weather, there is so much going on at a national scale that it’s difficult to fit it all into a single broadcast.

“So, these days we are in a digital world, a streaming world. And we wanted to have our hands in there, we wanted to be a part of that,” Williams said.

Thus, the WGEM First Alert Weather Now streaming service was born.

“But then we thought, instead of just having graphics run on it and it be kind of stagnant, what if we had a meteorologist on there and that was their full time gig,” Williams explained.

“The bosses thought it would be better, and it is better, to have an actual person on there,” said Chief Meteorologist Brian Inman. “And I couldn’t think of anybody better than Whitney.”

The First Alert Weather Now, or FAWN, streaming service is constantly being updated with videos and a variety of graphics to assure Tri-State residents if their daily plans are a go or a no-go.

“Any kind of weather conditions you would need to know about will be on there,” Williams stated.

“You get all of the local details about what’s going on,” Inman explained. “In addition to that, I know there’s a lot of weather nerds out there. You’re going to get tropical information, you’re going to get information about earthquakes, and you’re going to get information about snowstorms.”

On top of the First Alert Weather Now service, the innovative minds of WGEM’s First Alert Weather team thought of another great idea to communicate with Tri-State residents.

“We have a text line that you can text in weather reports, pictures, anything like that. And we will talk to those texts we can answer questions on there throughout the day,” Inman explained. “So its kind of like an interactive format for us, and for you.”

To contact the WGEM First Alert Weather Now text line, text: 217-577-1038.

The WGEM FAWN is available to stream at: https://www.wgem.com/page/first-alert-weather-now/

Streaming is also possible on the WGEM First Alert Weather smartphone and smart TV app.

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