FOR THE MEDIA CHASERS: How not to do a phoner!

[Todd Friskey]

I love to watch local stations on the web broadcast their non-stop severe weather coverage. I actually watched that entire web cast with OKC tornadoes that evening. I notice there is a difference in the way different regions of country handle tornado coverage. Sometime back this year when the tornado outbreak hit the southeast (i.e. Georgia, Carolina's), I believe it was March 15th?
I took turns watching three different TV stations from over there on the web. They seemed to be obsessed with the lightning plots on the radar. (I do not remember the call letters at this time, but could find out). They would announce severe and tor warnings, then go back to how much lighting strikes were showing up on radar. I remember one particular station in SC, really harped on the lightning strikes. I know lightning kills more people per year than tornadoes, but at that time I do not think lighting should be the biggest concern. Also, they all did not seem up to par with Oklahoma's weatherman in the way of presentation and the information.
Could it be they are not used to having to cover multiple (supercell) storms at one time? They have the same technology. I just know it was so different compared to KS & OK meteorologist.

 

[Terry Kern]

Rdale, you're a TV weather guy, submit your resume to the OKC stations and if you get hired, you can teach them how it should be done.

 

[Darin Brunin]

While watching a lot of the streaming stations last year while I was out of action, you could easily make one conclusion that they weren't as good as the OKC guys. The coverage of Greensburg last year is one prime example...the coverage was adequate for sure, but it just wasn't OKC level

I am not looking to start a debate but what else would you expect TV stations to do in situations like Greensburg?

 

[Chris C Sanner]

Like I said, the coverage was adequate for the Greensburg situation. The warnings were issued and I believe a lot of lives were saved. Just if the same thing was happening in Western Oklahoma lord knows what kind of coverage would've happened. I don't want to make it sound like the Greensburg situation wasn't handled well, adequate means adequate. They did the job they needed to do to save lives, that's about as good of a job as you can do without physically making sure everyone is in their tornado shelters. So please don't try to turn my words on me, not trying to say anyone did a bad job at all.

 

[Rick Smith]

Don't make my statement more than it is. I wasn't picking on the office. I'm just noticing the extreme FAR and wondering 1) what causes and 2) what impact.

Tulsa verified 11 out of 57 during that timeframe, so 46 busts (89%). Other offices that have issued at least double-digit TOR's - PAH 83% FAR, MEM 69%, LIT 75%, SGF 54% (on 101 warnings even, but 21 missed events)... You can look them up yourself at the IEM COW.

- Rob[/quote]

As discussed on this board each season, anyone scrutinizing PRELIMINARY verification stats needs to remember that these stats are not the official verification numbers - they are computed only from LSR's. There are more tornadoes that occurred this year without an LSR being issued.

Rick

 

[Darin Brunin]

Adequate to me means meeting the minimum requirements needed to do the job. I am not turning your words on you....I am just wondering what a TV station in Oklahoma would do in that situation to go beyond the call of duty.

 

[Danny Neal]

Memphis uses the BTI or as they call it the "tornado indicator" how is that determined??? Just measure the strength of rotation? http://youtube.com/watch?v=qEuVPrnEERs I have watch a few events on WMC-TV online and they always use the "BTI." It seems like it is pretty accurate.

 

[Elinor McLennon]

Go back and watch the coverage from May 3rd to see how they went above the call of duty. We have ground crews, helicopter crews and non stop live coverage for many hours that day.
True, the guys from KFOR get very excited during storm season but after viewing coverage from other states I feel we are lucky to have these guys out in the field.
Since I am lively, energetic and a true weather enthusiast I love watching these guys.
If I want to know what's going on from a calm, lack of entusiasm point of view I just simply switch to a different station.
But, either way, I am always weather aware thanks to the great coverage in OKC.
ha ha ha.....yall are right about winter weather coverage. It's hysterical to sit and watch these guys deal with snow and ice.
Hope everyone has an awesome day and stay safe this storm season.

 

[Darin Brunin]

Go back and watch the coverage from May 3rd to see how they went above the call of duty. We have ground crews, helicopter crews and non stop live coverage for many hours that day.

Are you kidding me? lol Go ask a helicopter pilot in OKC if they would have flown at night around the Greensburg storm and I am sure they would laugh at you. There are so many different variables to come into play in the two different situations that to even try and even compare the two is foolish. To say everyone didn't go above the call of duty with every resource available during the night(not during rush hour as a tornado is hitting a major metro area) of May 4th is a BIG slap in the face to every meteorologist in Wichita.

 

[Mike Johnston]

The Wichita stations can compete. I don't think they are better than the OKC stations simply because they don't pump as much money into it, but we are still good. KWCH dominates the market up here, and as much as I hate to say it, KAKE doesn't do too bad with their coverage either (I hate KAKE). KWCH still wins the ratings battle so we definitely have the edge, but overall the coverage is good. If we just had a helicopter... doh!
You can't go off Greensburg for a sample of Wichita coverage IMO. That was a night time event with complete chaos. If you watch on a normal day KWCH normally has 2 or 3 chasers on any good tornadic storm. Take the Nickerson storm for example. We had three chasers (that I know of) and a satellite truck on that storm. That's good coverage IMO.

I agree - the Wichita stations have a long and proud history of good severe weather coverage.

I remember back in the late 1960's there was a tornado warning on a storm out west of the airport. KAKE was somehow able to get a still photograph of the tornado on the air during the warning. Now days, this might seem like a yawner, but back then it was pretty impressive.

KFDI radio in Wichita used to have 5 or 6 spotters deployed in their "mobile units" phoning in live reports - and this was 30 years ago! They even had their own proprietary warning alert tones - one for severe t-storm, and one that would make your blood curdle for tornado. They stayed on the storms for as long as necessary and then some, in daylight or darkness.

And then there were the glory days at KSN when Mike Smith was in charge. He had such a calm demeanor on air, but when his viewers detected a bit of a more serious, concerned tone in his voice, well, the whole city knew it was time to take the storm seriously.

Those were the early days, and I've lived on the eastern seaboard for many years now. Yes, they have all the gadgets back here, too, but nothing that even comes close to the quality of coverage during severe weather that Wichita media had.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

The HUGE difference between the OKC tornado and Greensburg was that one of them took place at night... it's dark...
I wasn't on the storm, so I definitely screwed the pooch that day, but the stations had nonstop coverage, they were relaying all the reports they could get, etc. You can't do a whole lot with chasers when it's dark outside and there's debris blocking the road. Another huge difference is that Greensburg is a tiny little town in the middle of no where. There was nothing left out there. With a large tornado going through a large city you are going to have more reports than you know what to do with. There are thousands of people watching it that can call in. There are skycams watching it happen. With Greensburg there was nothing like that. It was a tiny town surrounded by 40 miles of wheat fields. There aren't many skycams out there.
Like I mentioned in my first post. You should watch one of the Wichita stations during a daylight event (besides KSN). There will be good coverage. Minus the helicopter it will probably be every bit as good as the OKC stations. Pretty much any time we have a good tornadic storm in this area there will be multiple media chasers on it.
The other edge OKC has is that it is literally the chaser capital of the world. You can't throw a rock without hitting one down there. There really aren't a whole lot of serious chasers in the Wichita area (compared to OKC). Then again the other difference is that damn helicopter... doh. Maybe we could get a camera system mounted on some sort of an ultralight. You know, one of those do-it-yourself airplaines with a box fan on the back. Maybe I could petition the station to get the ball rolling on that. We could call it Gribble 1. I'll buzz around the storm at 20kts and stream live video. That will put us on par with OKC.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Yeah KFDI still does that constant coverage during a severe warning. They are teamed up with KWCH. I didn't even think about that. So even when we just have a severe warning they are all over the storm. They just cover stuff around Wichita though. The chasers take care of the tornadic storms elsewhere in the state. God forbid a tornado ever did come towards Wichita, KWCH alone would have KFDI (lots of spotters/chasers) plus at least 3 or 4 chasers and a satcam on the storm. They would have more coverage than they could ever use. That would be an accurate comparison to the OKC tornado and I can assure we can hold our own in that type of situation.
Honestly I do give OKC the edge in coverage for a couple reasons, but ICT is certainly a very close second.

 

[rdale]

As discussed on this board each season, anyone scrutinizing PRELIMINARY verification stats needs to remember that these stats are not the official verification numbers - they are computed only from LSR's.

Of course, but I don't think Storm Data would swing the numbers too far... What's the limit on LSR's --- 3 days? I can't imagine that if you've gone that long without confirming a tornado, something would pop up 3 months later to verify the TOR.

Rdale, you're a TV weather guy, submit your resume to the OKC stations and if you get hired, you can teach them how it should be done.

I appreciate the plug - but I'm quite happy where I'm at. Thanks for the encouragement though. On the other hand I speak at conferences around the country, so I do my part. I'd love to sit in on some training from some of the OKC mets, but I don't see them on the presenter list at the events I'm at too often.

But to be honest, this has nothing to do with "teaching people" how things should be done. I just think that excessive hype for 20kt shear markers is harmful to our goal.

- Rob

 

[beaudodson]

Of course, but I don't think Storm Data would swing the numbers too far... What's the limit on LSR's --- 3 days? I can't imagine that if you've gone that long without confirming a tornado, something would pop up 3 months later to verify the TOR.



I appreciate the plug - but I'm quite happy where I'm at. Thanks for the encouragement though. On the other hand I speak at conferences around the country, so I do my part. I'd love to sit in on some training from some of the OKC mets, but I don't see them on the presenter list at the events I'm at too often.

But to be honest, this has nothing to do with "teaching people" how things should be done. I just think that excessive hype for 20kt shear markers is harmful to our goal.

- Rob

PAH has added tornadoes years after the event. I would think that it depends on what the information is that they are being given. We just got the first images of the Massac County F4 2003 tornado. Sometimes information comes in way after an event.

I would say that most of the time you are correct though - a few days.

 

[Shane Adams]

In case nobody noticed, I said nobody was better than OKC. I never said there weren't others who were on par. But the inevitable KS/OK pissing match has already begun so point's moot now