The last F5 tornado around here was on April 8, 1998. A total of 32 people were killed that night in Jefferson county in the western suburbs of Birmingham, in places like Oak Grove, Rock Creek, Sylvan Springs, McDonald Chapel, Edgewater, and Pratt City. The same parent thunderstorm dropped another tornado east of Birmingham in St. Clair county, killing two people north of Pell City. Plenty of things have changed in the last seven years, especially in the way local media handles tornado coverage.
ABC 33/40 was the only station with continuous coverage the night of April 8, 1998, and at the time the concept of long form tornado coverage was still a novelty since we had only been on the air for less than two years. There is no doubt the “wall to wall” coverage that night on our station was a very successful and crucial part of the warning process.
Now, most of the local TV stations and many local radio stations have joined our bandwagon, and go with long form coverage during tornado warnings. I still don’t think anybody else here promises the wall to wall coverage when ANY county in the designated market area is under a tornado warning. But, there is now plenty of media coverage during tornado warnings, and I am glad this is the case. But, the downside is that this kind of coverage had become “ho-hum”, and I somehow don’t think it has the same impact it had seven years ago. Too many false alarms with tornado warnings, too many severe thunderstorm warnings, and too many moderate to high risks coming from the Storm Prediction Center. I am not blaming anyone at the various NWS offices; but that is the simple truth. We must all work on improving the FAR (false alarm ratio).
For this reason, I am a big proponent of initiating a new formal “tornado emergency” message that will be used when a tornado is on the ground, and confirmed. This will kick the urgency “up a notch”, and get folks attention. The term is used now in a rather informal way, but I think it needs to be in the NWS directory of "official" warnings.
I hope it doesn't take another strong/violent tornado to prevent people from being lulled to sleep on severe weather safety.
ABC 33/40 was the only station with continuous coverage the night of April 8, 1998, and at the time the concept of long form tornado coverage was still a novelty since we had only been on the air for less than two years. There is no doubt the “wall to wall” coverage that night on our station was a very successful and crucial part of the warning process.
Now, most of the local TV stations and many local radio stations have joined our bandwagon, and go with long form coverage during tornado warnings. I still don’t think anybody else here promises the wall to wall coverage when ANY county in the designated market area is under a tornado warning. But, there is now plenty of media coverage during tornado warnings, and I am glad this is the case. But, the downside is that this kind of coverage had become “ho-hum”, and I somehow don’t think it has the same impact it had seven years ago. Too many false alarms with tornado warnings, too many severe thunderstorm warnings, and too many moderate to high risks coming from the Storm Prediction Center. I am not blaming anyone at the various NWS offices; but that is the simple truth. We must all work on improving the FAR (false alarm ratio).
For this reason, I am a big proponent of initiating a new formal “tornado emergency” message that will be used when a tornado is on the ground, and confirmed. This will kick the urgency “up a notch”, and get folks attention. The term is used now in a rather informal way, but I think it needs to be in the NWS directory of "official" warnings.
I hope it doesn't take another strong/violent tornado to prevent people from being lulled to sleep on severe weather safety.
on April 26, 2005, 11:40 pm
Reply to this comment