NWS warnings for large metropolitan areas

[Mark Sefried]

There have been numerous occasions while I am watching radar when a storm that looks like it should be warned over a large metro area isn't and if the same storm of similar intensity was over a rural area it is warned. Does the NWS have different criteria for issuing warnings and are more hesitant to issue warnings if the storm is over a large metro area? I don't think it's because there are fewer spotters in rural areas but maybe that in some cases as in during rush hour a tornado warning may cause mass panic and possible auto accidents due to people speeding to get home. Not to mention the politics that may be involved to some minor extent.

 

[Tony Cook]

not in Texas?

Just heard today of a study for Texas that draws the exact opposite conclusion. This is from a grad student at Baylor U in Waco.

http://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=8631358

I would like to read the actual paper, but haven't been able to find it yet. Note that this study is just for the 132 counties in Texas. Results may vary in your region.

TonyC

 

[rdale]

There have been numerous occasions while I am watching radar when a storm that looks like it should be warned over a large metro area isn't and if the same storm of similar intensity was over a rural area it is warned.

I think it's just a matter of your radar interpretation - how do you KNOW it would be warned if rural?

 

[Menno van der Haven]

Ha, in The Netherlands sometimes it also looks like the opposite is true.....

When a large snowcover (almost up to 2 feet thick) struck the northern parts of the Netherlands in march 2005, no weather-alert was given (while heavy snowfall was forecasted). Another time they gave weather-alerts for just hardly 2 inches of snow for the metropolitan areas in the western part of the country. And there are more examples.
It looks like that not only just the meteorological circumstances counts, but also the impact of the event on society....

 

[Mark Sefried]

I think it's just a matter of your radar interpretation - how do you KNOW it would be warned if rural?

I guess I need to go back to weather radar school 101 and learn the "basics".

I am sure that most chasers have seen a storm on radar that looked like it should obviously be warned to them and it wasn't.

 

[rdale]

Of course - but you can tell postevent if it should have... And I don't see "non-warned metro storms" that have major severe weather reported, any more than I see that from non-warned non-metro storms.