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OUN stopped putting out LSRs?

Andy Wehrle

Andy Wehrle

EF5
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
1,499
Location
Madison, WI
My first impression when I logged onto the SPC reports page after being out all afternoon was that nothing much had happened in the central Oklahoma portion of the high risk. Obviously given the firsthand reports and news filtering out of the area, that was not the case. It seems OUN stopped releasing local storm reports between 20 and 21Z. Did they have a technical problem, or was it a matter of being overwhelmed with so many storms to warn and keep track of that they had to prioritize?

Also I have to ask, did anyone feel an extreme sense of deja vu when they read this SVS?

...A TORNADO WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 530 PM CDT FOR NORTHERN
GRADY AND EXTREME SOUTHEASTERN CANADIAN COUNTIES...

AT 516 PM CDT...A THUNDERSTORM WITH A HISTORY OF PRODUCING TORNADOES
WAS LOCATED OVER NORTHEAST PARTS OF CHICKASHA...MOVING NORTHEAST AT
40 MPH. THIS STORM WILL LIKELY TRACK ALONG I-44 TOWARD BRIDGE
CREEK AND NEW CASTLE.


* LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE AMBER...BRIDGE CREEK...
CHICKASHA...LAVERTY...MIDDLEBERG...NORGE...POCASSET...SOUTHWESTERN
OKLAHOMA CITY...TABLER AND TUTTLE.

:eek:
 
Yea I think something happened with the reporting. If I had to take a take guess, it is the result of being overwhelmed. There was even mesos moving right towards them @ points.
 
I agree that it's likely that personnel were too taxed to worry about issuing LSRs. I assume that OUN will have a summary LSR (with all of the reports from today), but I know that they haven't always issued LSRs for "past" events (more than a few hours old) since the official reports get put out in Storm Data. Of course, we all use the SPC Prelim logs as a first-guess, and not issuing LSRs for past events really messes with that. I bet we'll see the LSR summary tomorrow.
 
I too was surprised to find that they were not posting the reports beyond the first touchdown near Canton yesterday afternoon. I figured they had gotten overwhelmed. But I wonder how this affected other chasers who were curious to reposition?
 
There are a few "may" and "should" lines in the NWS Directives regarding LSR, but the first line doesn't offer leeway for offices to skip out on the LSRs (for good reason.)

"WFOs will issue LSRs for severe weather events such as tornadoes, waterspouts, large hail, thunderstorm/marine wind gusts and flash floods."
 
Local stations reported they transferred operations to Ohama Air Command.
It appears there was a period where notifications were not sent out while the transfer occured.
 
Damon Lewis said:
Local stations reported they transferred operations to Ohama Air Command.
It appears there was a period where notifications were not sent out while the transfer occured.
Click to expand...

No, you're confusing the Storm Prediction Center with the NWS office. The NWS office did not take shelter, SPC did.

I see over a dozen tornadoes from OUN in the SPC log, so they must have sent something.
 
rdale said:
No, you're confusing the Storm Prediction Center with the NWS office. The NWS office did not take shelter, SPC did.

I see over a dozen tornadoes from OUN in the SPC log, so they must have sent something.
Click to expand...

Are you sure about this? Both offices are in the National Weather Center, I would assume that if one office took shelter they all would.

I haven't found an administrative message from OUN saying that, but that's what I think.
 
Michael Riedl said:
Are you sure about this?
Click to expand...

Yep...

Facebook
US National Weather Service Norman Oklahoma
Contrary to information that's being reported in the media, the NWS Norman Forecast Office did not evacuate or take shelter during yesterday's tornadoes. While safety and back-up plans are in place and could have been implemented had we felt an imminent threat, the forecast staff maintained their positions and warning operations continued uninterrupted.
 
rdale said:
No, you're confusing the Storm Prediction Center with the NWS office. The NWS office did not take shelter, SPC did.

I see over a dozen tornadoes from OUN in the SPC log, so they must have sent something.
Click to expand...

Correct. My bad for not being more clear.
Thanks.
 
Michael Riedl said:
Are you sure about this? Both offices are in the National Weather Center, I would assume that if one office took shelter they all would.

I haven't found an administrative message from OUN saying that, but that's what I think.
Click to expand...

The transition to backup with SPC is a little more complicated than the transition to backup for WFOs. One such consideration is that when a WFO backup takes place, the backup is remaining in the same organization (NOAA/NWS). However with SPC goes to backup, you are crossing over to a DOD organization. Thus, SPC initiated the backup process before the WFO had to.

Also, SPC updated all their products before completing the transition.
 
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