Japan’s Quake Alert Site Gets Facebook Page

Tenki.jp is the website of the Japan Weather Association, but many people know it as a place to turn to after an earthquake to check its location and magnitude. And as most of us here in Japan well know, tenki.jp/earthquake is often so overwhelmed with traffic in the minutes after a quake that it can’t be accessed.

So I was pleased to see it just announced that tenki.jp has a Facebook page. And while it’s billed as a page of announcements for weather and seasons, earthquake updates are occasionally being published there as well. Currently the page also features some ‘hanami’ or cherry blossom viewing information.

I was hoping that every quake alert would be posted on the page, but that doesn’t look to be the case. At least not yet. So for now I’ll still have to rely on @earthquake_jp for post-quake updates, which is pretty good as long as you’re on Twitter.

Although after the past month, I regret to say that I can pretty accurately judge the magnitude of an earthquake. It’s not really a skill that I hope to put to use much in the future, after what has been a very rocky few weeks in Japan to say the least.

And on a related note…

What did you Tweet after the quake

When the March 11th earthquake hit here in Japan, many of us jumped on Twitter to find out the latest information, or just to say that we were alright. If you’d like to go back and have a look at what you said, check out sembo.jp/zengo. It’s a new website that allows you to see what you Tweeted just before and after the quake.