Tag: Tornado warning

What Have We Learned From The Joplin Tornado?

As you might imagine Connecticut isn’t Joplin, but there are some problems we all share. We are overwarned!

On May 21st 159 people were killed as a tornado barreled through Joplin,Missouri. Considering warnings were issued and severe weather had been expected why did 159 people die? I just finished reading the Weather Service’s assessment.

Connecticut isn’t Joplin, but there are problems we share. We are overwarned!

Fully 76% of all tornado warnings produce no tornadoes! Three of every four are false alarms. I assume the percentage for Tornado Watches is even worse.

That statistic looks at the entire area warned. If you boiled it down to individuals–were you impacted by a tornado when warned–the number would be in the low single digits.

Finding #2b: The majority of surveyed Joplin residents did not immediately go to shelter upon hearing the initial warning, whether from local warning sirens, television, NWR, or other sources. Instead, most chose to further clarify and assess their risk by waiting for, actively seeking, and filtering additional information.

I know why they didn’t listen right away. We’ve spent the last few decades desensitizing you to warnings. Most warnings have no severe weather associated with them. Frustrating.

Part of the frustration lies in our inability to truly observe these monsters or even forecast them over short period with a high level of accuracy. The science just isn’t that good.

It hurts me that I can’t provide this level of service to you.

Another frustration is the sheer volume of watches, warnings and advisories issued by the Weather Service. There are entirely too many and too many individual types. It sometimes seems like an exercise in CYA politics. Small Craft Advisory I’m talking to you!

Maybe it’s time we removed advisories from the repertoire entirely?

If an area is experiencing severe weather there should be a single warning issued to cover it. Right now a major storm might throw a town under four or five separate alerts. Who does that serve?

I’m going to reread this report sometime over the next few days. There’s a lot to absorb–too much for a single look.

Part of my job is saving lives. I take that seriously.

Birthday Post Mortem

Damage in Connecticut was significant, but manageable. We proved we could do handle it.

Yesterday was my birthday. I had a great time, but nothing comes easy. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued as I got to work and from there things just spiraled.

One cell in Massachusetts was particularly vicious. We were able to track it as a Tornado Warning was issued, then started giving a heads up to Connecticut communities in the path. The Connecticut Tornado Warning soon followed.

We preempted the regularly scheduled newscast and stayed on long past our normal off time at 5:00 PM.

I’m not sure I mentioned this before, but one reason I went to FoxCT is because of Rachel Frank. I sensed before the fact we’d be able to work together. That’s no small thing during severe weather coverage when you two people share time with no script nor coordination other than shoulder taps and what you’re saying on live TV. You need a partner who plays well with others.

She’s a really well trained meteorologist (this year’s New England Emmy winner for weather). She’s also way ahead of me on our weather gear. Rachel was able to punch up screens I might not have thought to use. She certainly made the right call knowing when to show the Doppler part of Doppler radar.

What I can do after 27 years is sight read Connecticut maps. Even better I can visualize the map without seeing it. That’s important.

Your TV screen isn’t as dense as paper. We show many fewer towns that a printed map might. I can look at the map and start spouting off other nearby towns which helps viewers better understand the area we’re discussing.

It’s our job to make sure a viewer with minimal knowledge of where he is still gets value from our broadcast.

Anyway we done good! Damage in Connecticut was significant, but manageable. We proved we could handle it.

Thanks Mother Nature. Happy birthday to me–not!

In he middle of all this Helaine drove up from home to take me to dinner. She parked in a loading dock the newspaper uses overnight for delivery trucks.

It isn’t very reassuring to text your wife and tell her to stay put (she was in a safe location) because you’re doing tornado coverage. That’s what I had to do!

As the skies cleared we drove to West Hartford and had dinner on the patio at Bricco. That place is hopping on a Tuesday night!

We both had individual pizzas; mine a shrimp pizza with artichokes, soft onions, fresh mozzarella, leeks, plum tomatoes, arugula salad & Grana&#185. Killer!

So, my brthday was a very full day made better by the outpouring on Facebook. Tuesday ended with well over 1,000 birthday greetings on my wall. Yikes! I made sure to go back last night and read every one.

If you’re wondering, yes it was a happy birthday.

&#185 – I had to look it up. It’s cheese.

A Tale Of Two Messages – II

Since I beat myself up when wrong…

Yesterday I wrote and quoted a viewer who was incensed I’d broken into a ‘soap’ for tornado coverage.

We are so tired of hearing these false alarm weather reports. Every time it’s a normal storm becomes a tornado watch. Are you serious people? You’re gonna scare the hell out of old people.

Since I beat myself up when wrong…

000
NOUS41 KOKX 251619 CCA
PNSOKX
CTZ005>012-NJZ002>006-011-NYZ067>081-261200-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT…CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
1151 AM EDT FRI JUN 25 2010

…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONFIRMS TORNADO IN BRIDGEPORT
CONNECTICUT…

LOCATION…BRIDGEPORT. BRIEF TOUCHDOWN ON MAIN STREET…NICHOLS
STREET…AND CEDAR STREET…1 BLOCK NORTH OF INTERSTATE 95.
ESTIMATED TIME…230 PM
EF-SCALE RATING…EF1
ESTIMATED WIND SPEED…100 MPH
PATH WIDTH…100 YARDS
PATH LENGTH…0.15 MILES

THE DAMAGE REPORTED IN EASTON AND TRUMBULL WAS ASSOCIATED WITH
STRAIGHT LINE WIND DAMAGE AND IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH DAMAGE CREATED
BY A TORNADO

.15 miles is a little less than 800 feet or nearly three times the distance of a football field. In a densely packed city a path that length covers lot of people and property. Thankfully no one was killed and injuries were light.

A Tale Of Two Messages

For instance here’s the transcript from a voicemail I received. It was sent during a live wall-to-wall cut-in. A tornado warning was in effect.

We had some dicey weather in the state today. Tornado warnings went up between 2:00 and 3:00 PM.

We were on it at work, but who at home is really prepared for the possibility of tornadoes? People watch and hear my words, but how they react is anyone’s guess.

For instance here’s the transcript from a voicemail I received. It was sent during a live wall-to-wall cut-in. A tornado warning was in effect.

We are so tired of hearing these false alarm weather reports. Every time it’s a normal storm becomes a tornado watch. Are you serious people? You’re gonna scare the hell out of old people.

We pre-empted “One Life To Live.” This guy must be a big fan!

I’m not sure it was a tornado. Probably.

At Bridgeport the wind gusted to 75 mph at 2:23PM, then six minutes later to 78 mph. If memory serves me (and my friend Bob who tipped me off) that’s the highest officially recorded gust since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.

We’ll know better tomorrow when the Weather Service takes its survey and makes the official declaration.

In the end though what difference does it make? The damage was as bad as anything a tornado causes.

Not long after the voicemail I got this plain email.

Geoff: This may be silly but you are being talked about with a lot of admiration today. I’m in Rochester, NY and a viewer of yours wrote on a soap board how you came on TV during One Life To Live to talk about a possible tornado warning. You APOLOGIZED for interrupting the show. This never, never happens. And we often talk about how the soap fans are treated with such a lack of respect by television reporters. They interrupt the soaps when they would never interrupt a sporting event. I just wanted to thank you from here in Rochester, NY for respecting the soap viewer. It is much appreciated and you are becoming a hero on the board.

Maybe I should send her to the phone message guy?