High Risk Sat for Plains

[Keyeser]

From what I have heard, there was a technical problem which supposedly led to the lack of sirens. I haven't seen or heard anything official on that though. I didn't read into her quote that way. It sounds like that she was referring to the tornado itself. I will admit, I looked at radar about the time this went through western OK and didn't see anything impressive on radar. I am not even sure if there was anything but a SVR out at the time.

[scottylightning]

Originally Posted by ewink

From here.


On a related note, did you know Target does not sell NOAA Weather Radios?

Walmart sells them....yet people always bash the store.

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Originally Posted by scottylightning

Walmart sells them....yet people always bash the store.

I sell them, yet people always bash me....Then again, maybe it's the cupons for free sexual favors that I include in the package for the lady customers.

[scottylightning]

Originally Posted by Stormtracker_Tony

I sell them, yet people always bash me....Then again, maybe it's the cupons for free sexual favors that I include in the package for the lady customers.

Ah, yes....I forgot that you sell that stuff. I could use a new wx radio.

I could do without the sexual favors(unless you supply the girl as well).

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Originally Posted by scottylightning

I could do without the sexual favors(unless you supply the girl as well).

hmm, I guess we can negotiate...For $50 extra, I can include a heavenly night with the chick in my current avatar....Well, late afternoon, that is...She goes to bed at 6pm.

[scottylightning]

Originally Posted by Stormtracker_Tony

hmm, I guess we can negotiate...For $50 extra, I can include a heavenly night with the chick in my current avatar....Well, late afternoon, that is...She goes to bed at 6pm.

Damn....she stays up later than I do(I go to bed around 5pm....hey, I have to get in my 8 hours of sleep a night!)!

[Hoser, eh?]

I'm shocked... SHOCKED... to discover that chaser convergence was a problem Saturday...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...0_SALINA827179

Central Kansas officials criticize storm chasers

By Associated Press
Published: 4/17/2012 10:18 AM
Last Modified: 4/17/2012 10:18 AM

SALINA, Kan. — Some central Kansas safety officials say storm chasers created traffic jams and put others in danger while following severe weather that hit the state during the weekend.

But professional storm chasers are defending the practice, saying they provide valuable information to public officials during stormy weather.

Dickinson County officials compared traffic to a funeral procession along some roads and highways during storms Saturday in northwest portions of the county. They told The Salina Journal that some storm chasers would not move for emergency vehicles and drove over active power lines.

Lanny Dean, who runs an Oklahoma-based storm chasing company, contends legitimate storm chasers help provide information and educate their customers about weather dangers. He says amateurs who cause the problems are giving professionals a bad name.

[rdale]

THose county officials were morons... Most of the convergence was from local yahoos, and to this day with dozens of "They blocked our fire truck" stories not a bit of evidence. Sigh...

[Ping-Pong Ball]

Originally Posted by rdale

THose county officials were morons... Most of the convergence was from local yahoos, and to this day with dozens of "They blocked our fire truck" stories not a bit of evidence. Sigh...

Evidence? You want evidence? In all do respect, it was Saturday. This means all the back-woods county volunteer fire fighters were too darn drunk to collect any evidence.

I'll never forget when one rural community got a fire call during annual Skywarn training back when the NWS held it at a local bar! All of a sudden all these pagers went off, people got up & staggered to the door. What was left were cases of empty beer bottles & cans!

Next day, I asked someone from that town if their volunteer FD had a drinking problem. Their response, "It's gotten way better since they flipped their ladder truck on a way to a call last year."

All that alcohol on their breath can't be good for fighting flames.

[mcaster]

I may have missed this somewhere, but I cannot believe the NWS Wichita allowed the Weather Channel into their office during the outbreak. More importantly, I can't believe the way Mike S. was throwing the microphone into the mets faces while they were in the process of trying to juggle spotter reports, radar images and push out warnings. There was at least one point when the met had to delay puting out a warning in order to answer questions from the Weather Channel. I was floored! This should NEVER happen. I just hope this isn't the start of something more regular.

[Stormtracker_Tony]

Originally Posted by mcaster

I may have missed this somewhere, but I cannot believe the NWS Wichita allowed the Weather Channel into their office during the outbreak. More importantly, I can't believe the way Mike S. was throwing the microphone into the mets faces while they were in the process of trying to juggle spotter reports, radar images and push out warnings. There was at least one point when the met had to delay puting out a warning in order to answer questions from the Weather Channel. I was floored! This should NEVER happen. I just hope this isn't the start of something more regular.

I know of a local coastal station that rode out a hurricane in the NWS office back in the 80s...but that's a bit of a different situation.

As far as this Wichita evemt. I haven't seen anything so I can't really comment. The fact of the cameras being there at the NWS office doesn't bother me, but if on-air interviews were delaying the warning process, then that's definitely unacceptable.

[Ping-Pong Ball]

I got a Tweet about it shortly after Wichita resumed operations from hunkering down in the safe room, so I checked it I was impressed with how calm & professional the NWS staff was. I don't think TWC at NWS offices will become a thing of regularity, it was very boring TV. Like doing a live shot from an office of CPAs doing accounting. From what I saw, no warnings were delayed and the NWS personals seemed to all be doing their specific duties without interruption. Again, very boring TV. If one were to watch behind the scenes of TV wall to wall severe wx coverage, they would most likely view it as high stressed, organized chaos. The look in the Wichita office made their severe work appear as boring, well oiled machine of status quo office work. If only TV stations functioned more like NWS offices during severe wx. Off course, the NWS folks are all weatherwise and aren't begging the general public for video, live phoners, and so-on. Sure, the NWS will take phone calls but it's simple. Who are you? Where are you? What did you see? How long did it last? Damage? Thanks for call. Good bye.

[DoneThatToo]

Originally Posted by Ping-Pong Ball

. . . If one were to watch behind the scenes of TV wall to wall severe wx coverage, they would most likely view it as high stressed, organized chaos. The look in the Wichita office made their severe work appear as boring, well oiled machine of status quo office work. If only TV stations functioned more like NWS offices during severe wx. . .

Oh we can do well oiled and calm.. but that's just me and the weather crew. It's the news producers / managers who think the public wants to see crappy skype, video of rain, talking heads at the desk and another graphic about what to do that turn the entire thing into chaos.

Last April (you remember last April?) the ND told the Met to pitch to a Skype WHILE THE MET WAS TALKING ABOUT A TORNADO ON THE GROUND not 15 miles from the largest metor area in our DMA!! And no the Skype was nothing more than 'it's raining where I am' . . .

[Ping-Pong Ball]

Originally Posted by DoneThatToo

Oh we can do well oiled and calm.. but that's just me and the weather crew. It's the news producers / managers who think the public wants to see crappy skype, video of rain, talking heads at the desk and another graphic about what to do that turn the entire thing into chaos.

Last April (you remember last April?) the ND told the Met to pitch to a Skype WHILE THE MET WAS TALKING ABOUT A TORNADO ON THE GROUND not 15 miles from the largest metor area in our DMA!! And no the Skype was nothing more than 'it's raining where I am' . . .

Yep, I'm betting 99% of the mets on this board can do well oiled & calm; however, wall to wall coverage is never just the station mets. That's what I meant by the NWS folks all being weather wise. If NDs, producers, & non-wx news personal were half as wx savvy as the folks in a NWS office when that office's CWA was rocking & rolling, then the behind the scenes look at TV would be much calmer. After all, TV coverage is a whole separate beast. Someone at your shop is always monitoring what other stations are doing and sometimes this leads to one station trying to one up the other TV stations. Like I've worked in markets where each station's management demands their station be the 1st on the air while never wanting their channel to be the first off. Then stations fill the coverage with finding all sorts of ways to add to the coverage with eye candy, phoners, live shots, Facebook updates, Twitter, station promos, and vast amounts of sensationalism. Personally, I think viewers would benefit more if TV coverage of severe wx was much more cut & dry like the way the NWS operates during severe wx. But who wants to watch boring?

Sorry if my first comment made you feel like TV mets can't do calm & well oiled. That was not my intention. I know you can. I was just trying to draw a parallel to how calm a NWS office looks during a Tornado Emergency compared with what goes on in a TV station covering the same event; especially, when the TV station has non-weather personal sensationalizing the facts.

[vortmaximum]

http://online.wsj.com/video/tornado-...6168950E3.html

[MOCR]

Originally Posted by vortmaximum

http://online.wsj.com/video/tornado-...6168950E3.html

Did anyone else think this story was crap?

Has the WSJ lowered their standards or something?

Why would the WSJ Chicago Bureau chief weigh in on 1) something he has no clue about, and 2) something that occurred no where near him?

There wasn't anyone in Oklahoma, or in any of its large cities that could have been interviewed about the problems of "spotter convergence"?

My favorite part is when Mr. Baldy references the HURRICANE that killed 6 people in Woodward (at 1:48 into the clip) last week.

[Hoser, eh?]

I'll bring up this story since it happened 21 years ago today (4/26/91 Andover/Red Rock)...

Fantastic chase day in the middle of a spectacular chase season where you could all but fall out of bed and bag a hose. Well anticipated, photogenic event, etc. I was at OU when it happened (skipped classes to chase that Friday). We got on the Red Rock storm about 90 minuted before the first tornado dropped east of Enid and hung with it until about I-35 (it was haulin' A about 40-50 mph), and while we did encounter some other chase crews out, it wasn't bad. I think we saw maybe a half dozen crews on that storm the whole time we were on it, though we weren't on I-35 when it crossed and there may have been A LOT there.

Fast forward through the weekend to the following Monday. Chuck Doswell calls a meeting of all the students in the OU SoM, and reads us all the riot act over our behavior that day. No specific examples, just secondhand crap he heard from someone in local law enforcement. I actually forget what he said, but the message was "Get the hell off my lawn." A few months later I am back in the area up there (family is from Kay County) and run into a friend of my Dad's who is an OHP Trooper. I asked him about that day and if he had encountered or heard of any "chasers behaving badly," and he hadn't.

The more things change....