NWS FO seems rather unhappy about false reports

[Kenny Drake]

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=mpx&storyid=15416&source=0

Not long after these reports were received, calls began pouring in from Kandiyohi, Meeker, and Stearns counties, including a report near New London, where two law enforcement officers and two trained spotters independently reported a tornado.

I was following these storms last night and it was quite obvious that these were gustnadoes. The gust front which showed up fairly well on radar was at least a couple miles ahead of the main precipitation, and this was where the reports came from.

A gustnado is not a tornado, and it is not dangerous.

I do question that statement slightly. Indeed gustnadoes are not tornadoes, but they can be dangerous.

I always thought the current spotter training was well done, but that probably depends on where you are. Since "trained spotters" are reporting gustnadoes as tornadoes it seems likely that some of the spotter classes are failing somewhere along the lines. I would think that gustnado vs tornado would be a major topic that would be drilled into minds. This FO did not directly say they are unhappy with the situation, but they are definitely not happy since a nice mini essay came out of the false reports on Saturday night.

 

[Stan Rose]

I can understand the frustration, but the 'non-dangerous' part is clearly wrong. We even had a large dust devil knock down a brick wall here in Pueblo last week--surveillance video even captured it. (sorry no link at this time)