[BC] Tornado warnings

[Ernie Belanger]

There has long been confusion between Warnings and Watches.

Here is the OFFICIAL NOAA/NWS definition.

"When conditions are favorable for severe weather to develop, a severe 
thunderstorm or tornado WATCH is issued. Weather Service personnel use 
information from weather radar, spotters, and other sources to issue severe 
thunderstorm and tornado WARNINGS for areas where severe weather is 
imminent."

If you read the definition and understand it then you know that WARNINGS are 
issued when a tornado is imminent.  That would mean that when the infamous 
hook is spotted and most likely a tornado will spawn the WARN.

Based on your statement  if NOAA followed your criteria and waited until a 
Tornado was  spotted that would mean waiting until lives were potentially 
lost and damage was occurring.

NOAA has been chastised severely by Congress in the past for late warnings. 
Which did not allow enough time for folks to seek shelter.

I don't know about you but when it comes to potentially saving lives I 
rather they not Screw around waiting for the off chance someone spots a 
tornado on the ground calls 911 then we have to wait to have someone 
"official" come to see that yes indeed it is a tornado and not a prank 
call..... while all that is going on people are most likely getting killed 
or injured because they have not yet received a Warning of the danger which 
may be bearing down upon them.

I too lived in the Mid West and I watched my share of Funnel clouds play 
Yo-Yo without touching down. Each time there was a Warning issued and 
rightfully so. It alerts folks of potential imminent danger.

I for one would rather be warned of potential danger that doesn't come 
rather than having someone wait until a Tornado has touched down and I don't 
have time to get myself or my family to safety.

By not immediately passing along the WARNINGS a station  or announcer is 
playing Craps with peoples lives. Possibly their own family and friends 
lives.

Hopefully no one will lose or ha lost their life or be critically injured 
because a station or announcer chose not interrupt programming and  hedged 
their bets that a Tornado or other event wouldn't  materialize.

Ernie

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Webb" <kevin at tieline.com>
To: <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 1:18 AM
Subject: [BC] Tornado warnings


> Kent,
>
> You are correct for being confused and this is a problem I see that's 
> gotten
> worse.  Potential does not equal tornado.  When I used to do weather on TV
> we did *not* report a tornado warning until one was sighted by a reliable
> contact (police, known weather spotter, etc.).  But that was in the 80's.
> We were a bit advanced because we actually -had- weather radar.  That's
> showing my age.
>
> Now they run a tornado warning if they see the conditions are correct on
> Doppler radar and *not* necessarily an actual tornado.  Yes you can see 
> the
> classic "hook" or comma signature of wind shear that's *likely* to turn 
> into
> a tornado but that doesn't mean it IS a tornado.
>
> I'd like to see someone do a study of when they run tornado warnings based
> solely on the radar signature vs. one that's actually touched down.  I'll
> bet they'll see that it is less than 1 out of 10 times that signature 
> turns
> into anything at all.  This is way too close to crying wolf and the result
> is the public turns a blind eye and doesn't take the warning seriously.
> Plus how many more injuries and deaths have occurred because of the "cry
> wolf" syndrome of late??
>
>
> Kevin Webb
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:16:51 -0400
> From: "Kent Winrich" <kwinrich at gmail.com>
> Subject: [BC] Tornado warnings
> To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
> Message-ID:
> <615f119e0608312016y4bef1571pf5505646a8ec97a6 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> During the Ernesto thingy here in North Carolina, the NWS kept sending out
> tornado WARNINGS, but then said that the potential was there for a 
> tornado.
> Correct me if I am wrong but that sounds like a tornado WATCH.  Not once 
> did
> they say there was one on the ground.  In the Midwest when we got a 
> tornado
> warning, we knew we had one on the ground.  Paint me confused.  Do the
> different NWS office have different standards?
>
> Signed,
>
> Your soggy engineer....
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