Through hurricanes, earthquakes, snowstorms, flooding and more over the past year, the social web has proved an essential place for those closest to severe weather to share updates, status reports and warnings about what's going on and what's to come.

The #Weather Shorty Award, presented in partnership with The Weather Channel, will be awarded to the person who does the best job covering the weather on Twitter, the social web and iWitness.

The winner will be selected based upon the number of nominations they’ve received, the impact and creativity of their tweets, and the level of innovation in their use of social media as judged by the Shorty Awards Real-Time Academy. Only those who consistently share weather information are eligible for this Award.