• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

2/27/10 DISC: CA

Joined
Apr 6, 2006
Messages
101
Location
Westlake Village, CA
Impressive catch(es), guys----congrats!

Apparently there were no "official" tornadoes in the United States during all of February, 2010. As far as I know, the Huntington Beach waterspout of 2/27/10 will not count as a tornado, since there was no confirmed tornadic circulation on land areas----too bad our little California offshore "tornado" doesn't count as the only U.S. tornado during the month!

This brings up a few questions...

If this waterspout/tornado moved over an exposed offshore reef during low tide, would it rise to "official tornado" status and be counted? I suspect that if it touched Santa Catalina or San Clemente Island, then it would be counted. What if the waterspout moved into Newport Harbor, had its way with a bunch of sailboats, was practically surrounded by land, but never came onto land? Would it be counted as a tornado? What if Saturday's waterspout overturned a boat or swept people off of a ship a mile offshore? Would the injuries and/or deaths be counted by Storm Data/SPC? Could we have "tornado" deaths, yet no "official" tornado in the database?

Who gets to decide these things?!

Bill Reid
Westlake Village, CA
 
People have already been poking into the old debate of how to count and classify waterspouts in other threads in regards to this event. See:
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23099

I suspect the call is done on a case by case basis by the local NWSFO. I doubt they'd count it if it hit an exposed reef, but an island yes. I also doubt they would count it if it only hit boats, but again the local offices probably have their own standards. Any injuries or fatalities would probably be counted along with other offshore weather related boating fatalities.
 
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