Poor Media Use of Weather Terminology

Apr 23, 2010
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Even our scud is mean here…no…definitely a tornado though…that’s actually the best footage I have seen of it….other video was murky

The storm…track

More like 5 mil’ guys…it did hit a chicken house…like eggs weren’t expensive enough.


Our current concern
 
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Jun 8, 2018
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Denpasar bali

Dust devil? That video literally shows a tornado on the ground, you can even see the dust being connected to a funnel and the cloud base
 
Jul 5, 2009
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Newtown, Pennsylvania
From a Wall Street Jounal article about the Rolling Fork Tornado

The severe weather began as heavy rain Friday afternoon across Arkansas, Missouri and the Ohio Valley, and then turned into what’s known as a supercell, a particularly powerful type of rotating thunderstorm, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.”
 

Jason N

EF3
Mar 2, 2021
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South Carolina
From a Wall Street Jounal article about the Rolling Fork Tornado

The severe weather began as heavy rain Friday afternoon across Arkansas, Missouri and the Ohio Valley, and then turned into what’s known as a supercell, a particularly powerful type of rotating thunderstorm, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.”
where's the Emoji for "ugh", lol
 
Jun 8, 2018
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Denpasar bali

Dust devil? That video literally shows a tornado on the ground, you can even see the dust being connected to a funnel and the cloud base
I don't know why it was called as "dust devil"
 
Oct 10, 2004
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Madison, WI
Ummmmmmmm....what?
I mentioned it in another thread but that's standard media terminology unless a tornado has been officially confirmed by NWS survey, even though it's really meant for situations where some storm damage occurred in the middle of the night or invisible inside a wall of rain. When a hundred chasers have video of a huge funnel flinging debris everywhere, then...<shrugs>.

I work as a newscast director for a local TV station, and I've told our producers to stop using that term when there's clear video of it. It usually comes to us in the boilerplate scripts that accompany national network video.
 
Apr 23, 2010
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My favorite was on The Weather Channel decades ago:

The girl was trying to say “hot off the press” and she said “my hot little hands.”
 
Oct 10, 2004
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Madison, WI
It's kind of a dead horse at this point, isn't it? It's standard media practice to wait for NWS confirmation that a tornado occurred. Yes, it looks silly when there's spectacular video of it in progress. My station did this in our story about the Greenwood tornado this morning. I reminded our producer not to do that when there's clear video, but it'll probably keep happening.
 
Jun 8, 2018
37
21
6
Denpasar bali
It's kind of a dead horse at this point, isn't it? It's standard media practice to wait for NWS confirmation that a tornado occurred. Yes, it looks silly when there's spectacular video of it in progress. My station did this in our story about the Greenwood tornado this morning. I reminded our producer not to do that when there's clear video, but it'll probably keep happening.
Found another post about the Greenwood tornado (called as "funnel cloud" by AP)