Community Chat

[Sooner]

The tv stations in Oklahoma City have teams of spotters.  A few are husband and wife teams.  Sometimes it takes two; one to watch the radar from a monitor in the truck and communicate with the people at the station and the driver to watch and give reports and drive--some teams did almost 1,000 miles one day last week alone. A team from the Weather Station died a few years ago.  It is not an exact science. 

One station in particular had one meteorologist on air for 10 hours or more last week, and 4 other meteorologists on site at the station working with data, plus communications and computer people to help during the storm tracking.  

The NWS has spotters too, as well as research teams from the University of Oklahoma with dopplers on huge trucks, because they are testing new generations of weather forecasting equipment.  It's a huge deal and a big research program.

Photos can be seen here.  Keep scrolling because they are amazing.  There was another huge tornado on May 3, 1999 too in Moore but these pictures are from 2013.

Moore Oklahoma tornado damage

The spotters are positioned where the storms are expected to start and stay with them sometimes boarder to boarder across the whole State of Oklahoma. 

That's why sometimes the tv spotters see something, and the people at the station see something and they may start talking tornado before the official warning comes out.  They talk about something developing often before it gets to the point where NWS issues the official warning.  NWS doesn't cry wolf. But they are cautious too not to miss something. 

A minute can mean a lot.  It can sometimes mean a life.  The tv stations will talk "might" or "maybe" about a tornado before the official warning comes out.  Usually.  With storms you never know. The tv stations will be on air 10 hours solid sometimes, no commercials even.  

 One of the Moore tornadoes produced the highest winds ever recorded on earth--300 plus.

May 3, 1999

Damage $1 billion (1999 USD); $1.5 billion (2019 USD)

Highest winds: 302 ± 22 mph  (as measured by mobile Doppler radar);

May 3, 1999, 6:23 p.m. CDT 

 F5 tornado

Fatalities: 36 fatalities (+5 indirect),, 583 injuries

[lovesrecess]

I would pay attention when they say tornado warning; that should mean a tornado has formed, spotted, and is active.
Watch means conditions are favorabl for a tornado to form. Keep your eyes on the skies, so to speak. Can’t imagine anything more irresponsible than issuing a warning when no tornado has been spotted. I would definitely complain to whatever TV channel reports like this.

[CrazyDaisy]

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@esmerelda wrote:

Last night, well after the commercial networks (affiliates) went full time with weather and tornado warnings, the PBS station ran the banner with a warning issued by the national weather service. 

It seems lately when there is a “thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado” they (affiliates) issue a warning. No sign or reports from spotters...just a storm capable etc. 

Were they overreacting?

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Warnings can only be issued by the National Weather Service. 

Often storm systems that have a history of producing sever weather or tornado activity will have warnings attached as long as the conditions continue.  Thus a storm system may be entering your area that has a sever history and a warning attached even though there have been no sightings in the immediate area, Some areas are more prone under certain conditions "ballooning" very quickly into sever storms.