NWS not believing a report...

[Jason Boggs]

Has anyone ever called in a report to the NWS and been told that it's a false report?

I called in a report to a NWS office one time about nickel size hail and was told by the meteorologist that he was not buying it. I told him that I was a skywarn trained spotter and was an experienced chaser for a tv station. He said that he just could not believe the report from looking at the radar. I kept trying to tell him about the hail size and he never did believe me. This incident really struck me as unprofessional and irresonsible. Wouldn't have it been easier for the meteorologist to just say something like "Thank you for the report" instead of basically calling me a liar? I really lost a lot of respect for that particular individual. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

 

[cedwards]

They havn't ever called me a lier, I have had them take the report, then didn't put it in any LSR. There was dammage and my video made it on the TV, but it never was officially reported.

In your case, I don't think arguing with him would do any good. It would have been great to get the conversation on video, showing you talking to him and the tornado in the background, then send him a copy.

 

[Jason Boggs]

I didn't call in a tornado report. It was just a simple nickel size hail report.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

They've never told me they didn't believe my report, but they have ignored it. On May 23, 2004 I got the first and only opportunity I've ever had to submit a report to the NWS when penny size (with a couple larger chunks) hail hit my house. I submitted a report to the NWSFO-MKX via their online report submit page, but they never put it in an LSR, nor Storm Data, nor the SPC Preliminary. So they basically told me they didn't believe it by ignoring it.

http://sphs.angeltowns.net/insanity/chases/052304.html

 

[George Tincher]

Doesn't this type of attitude defeat the purpose of having spotters in the first place? I mean it was my whole understanding that spotters exist for the simple purpose of relaying info not provided by weather instruments, thus providing a "ground truth".

Somehow, I think I'd trust the eyes of an experienced and respected chaser over equipment in many cases. Afterall, equipment and software can have glitches. It can break. Or it can give false readings.

It seems I have had mostly pleasant experiences when calling in reports. And my NWS office has always made me feel as if my reports are appreciated. But I'm afraid that a few of the people who treat spotters in this manner turn them off to reporting, simply because they feel they will be ridiculed or not taken seriously by the person who takes their report. So they just don't want to bother after an experience like this.

-George

 

[Dan Cook]

In late July, we had severe winds that knocked down a bunch of trees near my house; the village had to come out with chain saws and clear them because they fell across the road. So I checked the LSR that was out and saw no report for it, so I submitted it with LOT's online report.

Nothing ever came of it.

 

[Robert Dewey]

Our NWS is quite the opposite... I could call them up right now and tell them that there is a giant wedge tornado wrapped in snow, and they would issue a warning :lol:

I had one incident many years ago where we had damaging winds of 70MPH, and the power went out. After about 25 minutes, power was back up, so I called the NWS and reported the situation, but forgot to mention that it happened 25 minutes ago. Next thing I know, I see the scroll across the bottom of the TWC screen, stating spotters at my location observed damaging winds in excess of 70MPH -- They cancelled it shortly after, however, LOL...

And, my final incident, is when I tried to call in and report a 60MPH wind gust to the NWS. Well, I called the number that I was given to call, and some guy answered the phone. I then told him I would like to report a wind gust to 60MPH at such and such location, and the guys repsonse was "so what do you want me to do about it?"... I was like "uhh... I don't know, do whatever your supposed to do...". He then told me that he wasn't the NWS . What happened, was the NWS changed their phone number, and this lucky dude got the old NWS phone number, so he went on to tell me about how he would get tons of calls for severe weather reports, LOL

But, Jason's story takes the cake! I agree, that is very rude and offensive. The least he could have done is said "okay", and then just never put it through, rather than saying "yeah, right, I'm not buying it", LOL -- I'm sure pranking the NWS with dime sized hail reports is on the top list for phone pranksters!

 

[cedwards]

The most interesting report was a call to 911 by Matt Biddle. It was October, 8, 1997 near Billings, OK. The conversation when something like this:

Matt: I am a Trained Spotter. I am watching a tornado just west of I-35 at mile marker 102.
911: OK, I will send spotters out.
Matt: I AM a spotter, I am reporting a tornado on the ground!
911: OK, I will tell the spotters to look for a tornado.
Matt: NO! I am a spotter, and I am telling you that there is a tornado on the ground NOW!
911: OK.

Matt used 911 because he had a cell phone that was not activated, that is the only call he could make from it.

 

[George Tincher]

Originally posted by cedwards
The most interesting report was a call to 911 by Matt Biddle. It was October, 8, 1997 near Billings, OK. The conversation when something like this:

Matt: I am a Trained Spotter. I am watching a tornado just west of I-35 at mile marker 102.
911: OK, I will send spotters out.
Matt: I AM a spotter, I am reporting a tornado on the ground!
911: OK, I will tell the spotters to look for a tornado.
Matt: NO! I am a spotter, and I am telling you that there is a tornado on the ground NOW!
911: OK.

Matt used 911 because he had a cell phone that was not activated, that is the only call he could make from it.

LOL! :lol:

I'm sure that was rather amusing, at least from your perspective.

 

[Skip Talbot]

LOL, great stories all.

Jason, why didn't you collect some hail and bring it into the office. That would show him. :wink:

 

[Jason Boggs]

I should have but what if it melted and was only pea size when I showed it to him? :lol:

 

[Jeff Wear]

On 10/30/1996 I saw a funnel cloud in Keyes CA while driving home from school. When I arrived home in Turlock a few minutes later - we began to get 1/4 inch hail. So I called the NWS in Sacramento with my funnel cloud report and my hail report. They issued a special weather statement mentioning the hail - but didn't say anything about the funnel....not sure if they believed it since they usually list all the spotter reports they get in their spotter newsletter, but never said anything about the funnel in there either.

Nearly all my dealings with calling in reports to the Sacramento NWS were positive....even with the funnel cloud report mentioned above I never got any "yeah right" or "so what" type of responses on the other end of the line. There were a couple times though they actually took down the report wrong. Once I reported two funnel clouds east of Turlock....then the special weather statement came out saying "A WEATHER SPOTTER REPORTED SEVERAL FUNNEL CLOUDS EAST OF TURLOCK". Then there was another time I reported 1.50 inches of rain in 30 minutes...which came out in the special weather statement as "A SPOTTER IN TURLOCK REPORTED 1.75 INCHES OF RAIN IN 30 MINUTES"....but those were just two exceptions out of maybe 30 or 40 reports I made while a spotter there.

 

[Joe Nield]

Originally posted by Jason Boggs
Has anyone ever called in a report to the NWS and been told that it's a false report?

I called in a report to a NWS office one time about nickel size hail and was told by the meteorologist that he was not buying it. I told him that I was a skywarn trained spotter and was an experienced chaser for a tv station. He said that he just could not believe the report from looking at the radar. I kept trying to tell him about the hail size and he never did believe me. This incident really struck me as unprofessional and irresonsible. Wouldn't have it been easier for the meteorologist to just say something like \"Thank you for the report\" instead of basically calling me a liar? I really lost a lot of respect for that particular individual. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

That is definitely not the way to go about it, and I'm disappointed that it happened. One should always treat spotters with the utmost respect. We need them, and they have no real obligation to spend their time for our needs.

I once had a guy call from a office tower in Indianapolis during a storm who said "there's not much of a dryline going on." I thanked him for his report, hung up, and then and only then did I bust out laughing.

As far as reports not getting entered, the volume of reports received is often way too much to deal with. While every effort is made to enter all reports, some QC'ing is a applied to reports, weeding out those within a certain time and distance frame relative to other reports for brevity's sake (always ensuring that the climatological database is well-served, though). It is not practical to send an LSR well after an event, as it no longer has value to real-time application. It is better to enter it in storm data and let the QC folks have it if they wish.

 

[Jay McCoy]

I had this problem once a long time ago. I was on a storm near Channing (60NW of AMA) and had a nice tornado on the ground. I called it in to the NWS only to be blown off by some intern answering the phone. He said the storm wasnt even severe and I was looking at a dust devil or something. The next day I took the video to the NWS and talked with the warning coordinator who I knew well and told him what happened and showed it to him. He called the intern into the office and we showed him the video of the "dust devil". He was wide eyed and had nothing to say. I almost felt sorry for him but I never have had a report questioned from them again. Why they had an intern answering the phone I have no clue.

I dont know about other offices but in amarillo they now have cards with numbers on it assigned to spotters that have been through their training and when you call in a report they ask for your spotter number. Is this nationwide or is Amarillo the only one doint this. it is a good way for them to verify you know what your talking about.

Jason you need to introduce yourself to some of the guys out there during our wx workshop in March so they will know who you are and know you know what your doing.

P.S. Good to finally have you on ST. About time you got in here with us.

 

[David Drummond]

Originally posted by Jay McCoy
I had this problem once a long time ago. I was on a storm near Channing (60NW of AMA) and had a nice tornado on the ground. I called it in to the NWS only to be blown off by some intern answering the phone. He said the storm wasnt even severe and I was looking at a dust devil or something. The next day I took the video to the NWS and talked with the warning coordinator who I knew well and told him what happened and showed it to him. He called the intern into the office and we showed him the video of the \"dust devil\". He was wide eyed and had nothing to say. I almost felt sorry for him but I never have had a report questioned from them again. Why they had an intern answering the phone I have no clue.

I dont know about other offices but in amarillo they now have cards with numbers on it assigned to spotters that have been through their training and when you call in a report they ask for your spotter number. Is this nationwide or is Amarillo the only one doint this. it is a good way for them to verify you know what your talking about.

Jason you need to introduce yourself to some of the guys out there during our wx workshop in March so they will know who you are and know you know what your doing.

P.S. Good to finally have you on ST. About time you got in here with us.

Do you know when that is Jay? Might be good for Graham and I to get up there since we chase up there a lot. We all know the good tornadoes this year will be in the TX Panhandle!

Keep in mind out here, some of our LP storms can really look like crap on radar, especially the farther out from the site you are, yet doing some really interesting stuff in ground truth. I have seen them report a tornado or two over the years with pretty much NO precip, and they didn't believe the report, but when I saw the radar later, I wouldn't have believed it either.