NWS Chicago Tornado Warnings

[Danny Neal]

Saw a nice little write up by NWS LOT on tornado warning issuance for the 2008 severe weather season.

Six of the seventeen tornadoes that struck the area this year were “significantâ€￾ tornadoes, rated EF2 or greater on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. This ratio is fairly typical for the central United States. There were no fatalities and only eleven injuries.

For the period January through August, 2008, the NWS Forecast Office at Chicago/Romeoville, which serves 23 counties in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, provided advanced warning for 88% of the tornadoes that occurred in the area. The state of the science of meteorology today still makes warning for every tornado an extremely challenging responsibility, but the Chicago office’s warning accuracy exceeded the national average by 16%. The average lead time from tornado warning issuance to the initial report of tornado occurrence was 17 minutes, which exceeded national standards by 4 minutes.

Full write up here.

My thoughts: I will be the first to stand up and say that NWS LOT did an amazing job this year with the SVR and TOR warnings. The audio I posted from June 7th in the other thread shows just a taste at how organized it is around here and easy to see why the Chicago office exceeded national standards this year.