50th Anniversary of Scientific Tornado Coverage on Television

[Mike Smith]

I didn't know where to post this, so I hope Advanced Weather & Chasing is okay.

Saturday is the 50th anniversary of perhaps the most important day in the history of television severe weather coverage and it occurred at WKY TV (now KFOR) in OKC. I tell the story here: June 8, 1974: "The Day Television Weather Grew Up"

One of the things that made it so different is that we televised a tornado -- live. That just wasn't done in 1974. It was the era of film (which had to be processed in chemicals for 20 minutes and then painstakingly edited) and studio cameras were heavy and awkward.

I was one of the original 1972 NSSL/OU storm chasers. While the term "supercell" was hardly known, among the chasers we had come to learn that tornadoes generally occurred on the back -- usually southwest -- side of thunderstorms. So, as the supercell that caused the 9 mile F-3 Will Rogers tornado moved northeast, it became evident that we might be able to get a view of the west side of the storm from 500 E Britton Road. And, we did.

Storm chasing has caused so many advances that we just take for granted today!

 

[Mike Smith]

The Tulsa NWS has published a magnificent story of that day's events:

June 8, 1974 Tornado Outbreak and Flash Floods

50 years later - Remembering one of Oklahoma's most significant late season severe weather outbreaks.

storymaps.arcgis.com

 

[John Farley]

The Tulsa NWS has published a magnificent story of that day's events:

June 8, 1974 Tornado Outbreak and Flash Floods

50 years later - Remembering one of Oklahoma's most significant late season severe weather outbreaks.

storymaps.arcgis.com

Thanks for posting this, Mike - very interesting read.

 

[Blake Naftel]

Thanks for sharing this, Mike and for preserving some of the original NAFAX charts/radar scopes, imagery and memories from that day. Enjoyed the additional ArcGIS story presentation.

Did WKY-TV [KFOR-TV] record or save any portion of the live broadcasts or tornado event from the June 8, 1974 event or was it a direct live to air broadcast? Obviously in that era of TV broadcasting, most 2" quad videotape reels were often blacked/recycled with much live material lost, but as this was an impactful moment in your life and career, I gather you would have further insight.

 

[Mike Smith]

Did WKY-TV [KFOR-TV] record or save any portion of the live broadcasts or tornado event from the June 8, 1974 event or was it a direct live to air broadcast? Obviously in that era of TV broadcasting, most 2" quad videotape reels were often blacked/recycled with much live material lost

Blake, it was 100% live and adlibbed. I would trace the radar, add a couple of notes, and I was on the air in 10 seconds.

I called up to master control and told them to run a tape as the camera was being rolled toward the loading dock just before we did the live tornado broadcast. I saw the recording after but it was, somehow, lost. None of the other parts of the coverage were preserved. WKY saved all of its news film but none of the video. They would probably still have the news images of the damage but none of the coverage.

I thought the TUL NWS did a wonderful job with the story. They deserve a lot of credit digging up and presenting all of that.

Mike Morgan (now Chief Meteorologist of WKY/KFOR) has asked, "How did you think to do all of those things [that hadn't previously been done]?" The credit for that goes not to me but to the great Dr. John McCarthy*. If he hadn't accompanied Ted Fujita on his Superoutbreak investigation for two weeks and learned all of the (many) things that went wrong that day and pulled me aside after class with his advice, I never could have done it.







*[Of course, John -- a pilot -- worked with Ted to defeat the downburst as a commercial aviation hazard.]

 

[Blake Naftel]

I called up to master control and told them to run a tape as the camera was being rolled toward the loading dock just before we did the live tornado broadcast. I saw the recording after but it was, somehow, lost. None of the other parts of the coverage were preserved. WKY saved all of its news film but none of the video. They would probably still have the news images of the damage but none of the coverage.

Mike, thanks for confirming that aspect, of which does not surprise me considering videotape at the time was so frequently reused that, even when bounced onto small dub cores; those too were often pitched, erased or went missing over time. That particular broadcast at WKY-TV would have been fantastic to see again. Thankfully the film archives were saved and preserved, including the Union City event in 1973. To contrast OKC TV stations, KWTV 9/CBS kept a stellar videotape and film archive dating back through the late 1960's and early 1970's, although I don't recall if the June 8, 1974 event was saved. The TV-9 tape archive room as I recall it was well organized, so perhaps. It always surprises me how various station-to-station archive protocols differed so significantly.

The TUL GIS presentation is excellent. The GRR NWS office and I collaborated on a similar project for the May 13, 1980 tornadoes in Van Buren and Kalamazoo County, Michigan for the 40th retrospective a few years prior. The ArcGIS StoryMap interface assists the visual flow greatly!

It's also encouraging to read your words regarding your teacher/professor, Dr. John McCarthy. As so often happens in life, such brief fleeting moments of conversations plant the seeds for assorted successes, discoveries, accomplishments and so on that aids in many of those "heat of the moment" scenarios encountered, such as your early broadcast experiences at WKY-TV 50 years ago. I've certainly had a share of career/life serendipity throughout time, and more often than not it always involves weather.

 

[Mike Smith]

50 years ago at this minute, we had stopped our broadcast of the Spencer Tornado while the Luther Tornado had just touched down. There was no way to get a camera on the storm that far north. Seems like yesterday. As my friend Steve Amburn (note the credit to him in TUL NWS package) put it, "I'll always remember that day like I remember where I was when Kennedy was shot or 9/11." Having to deal with five tornadoes in a single metro area in a single afternoon was extraordinary.

There were several times in my life where I've felt the God wanted me in a certain place at a certain time and June 8 was certainly one of them. It wasn't just my work, it was John's, the WKY technical crew, and the appearance of Frank Magid.

 

[Matt Zumbrunn]

June 8th 1974 was quite the day. Also spawned an F4 in Emporia KS that killed 6 and injured 200.

 

[Mike Smith]

June 8th 1974 was quite the day. Also spawned an F4 in Emporia KS that killed 6 and injured 200.

There is a map showing the track of that tornado, it was fairly long, in my piece.

 

[Jamie H]

Both Mike's link and the Tulsa NWS one are excellent and provide lots of information. Thanks for sharing them!

 

[Mike Smith]

Colton Cravens (OklahomaTornadoDB), Mike Morgan and I discuss the June 8 outbreak. I found the discussion fascinating and I think you will, too.

Mike Morgan and I Discuss the Historic Tornadoes of June 8, 1974

Left is storm chaser and documentarian Colton Cravens and right is Mike Morgan The telecast was done from the Drumright, OK Museum If you ar...

www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com

 

[Jeff Smith]

Awesome write up Mike! I listened to the interview with Colton and Mike Morgan as well. This historical events really are something worthy of study.
I wonder what the watch/warning texts would look like back then? I remember as a child seeing the "WEATHER BULLETIN" on the TV screen as an off-camera announcer would read warning texts, way before live radar and wall to wall coverage.

Here is an amazing recording of KRMG radio in Tulsa's coverage along with an interview with John Erling and the news director at the time. You have to scroll way down to the "June 8, 1974 tornadoes" section. It will take you back in time.

https://johnerling.com/newsradio/

 

[Mike Smith]

Here is an amazing recording of KRMG radio in Tulsa's coverage along with an interview with John Erling and the news director at the time. You have to scroll way down to the "June 8, 1974 tornadoes" section. It will take you back in time.

Jeff, this is just incredible, thank you.

It illustrates the deficiencies in tornado coverage when you have a radio/TV market -- as Tulsa was then -- without meteorologists or radar. All they can do is list off the counties under tornado warnings. There was a location given when a new TOR was issued but it was not updated during the hour or so the warning was in effect.

Finally, about 14:30, they get the NWS on the phone and he tells KRMG that there is a "hook echo over Sapulpa moving into the City of Tulsa, but we are holding off on the sirens until Sapulpa civil defense can look at it." Arrghh!

This is what we revolutionized on June 8, 1974: constant, live updates as to the location of tornadoes and where they were headed. We also did not wait for the NWS in a situation like these. We warned our viewers before tornado #1 struck Will Rogers and I'm sure I would have warned Tulsa before the NWS did so if the hook was well-defined (see my piece for an explanation of why WKY was covering TUL, June 8, 1974: "The Day Television Weather Grew Up" ).

 

[Jeff Smith]

Thanks Mike,
I love diving into historical weather events-especially this one as I was just a child, but I remember my dad taking us around later to see the damage. I was hooked so to speak on weather and anytime dark clouds came in I was glued to my transistor radio with NOAA weather radio, and later as I grew up, HAM radio scanners. As the TV meteorology and wall to wall developed I watched almost every event in the Tulsa area. Then, Dec 5, 1975 came and after seeing that wintertime Tulsa tornado, my storm enthusiasm was permanently engrained into my existence as I became a HAM operator and storm spotter/chaser. I still believe HAM radio spotters are important, albeit playing a little different role than back then-with the advent of streaming video and social media. But it is still valuable and needs a revitalization/modernization to remain relevant and beneficial to aid the warning process. I am working on some HAM/spotter presentations in order to do just that. Sorry to go OT...

 

[Mike Smith]

Then, Dec 5, 1975 came and after seeing that wintertime Tulsa tornado

I had hired a new meteorologist and it was her first day on the job at KARD TV (now KSNW) in Wichita. I was showing her how to operate our WSR-74C and explained that, "the storm over Tulsa is real trouble." That was still in the day of the 55 word/minute teletypes that did not carry storm warnings from out-of-state (other than the counties that actually touched the Kansas border). When they went to a high-speed weather wire, which would allow tornado warnings from out-of-state, the Kansas Association of Broadcasters -- opposed adding them!

All of this is progress is completely taken for granted now -- which is both fine and understandable -- but it is hard to imagine how hard some of us had to fight to make advances in the decade of the 1970's, which may have been the single most important decade in terms of progress in weather forecasting and storm warnings.

Fujita's work, because of envy, was soundly rejected. Almost no one believed he was correct about suction vortices (as he called them), the Fujita Scale and, especially, downbursts. Some meteorologists at NSSL openly mocked Fujita. While on a different topic than meteorology, a woman by the name of Virginia Postrel wrote a book, The Future and Its Enemies -- the title pretty well described the 70's in weather science.