Question about spotters and tornado warnings

[coletteip]

Hello, I LOVE storms and chasing them, and get a great deal of flack from my family for it. You see, I live in the Pacific Northwest, have only been chasing once, and chase via Wunderground/Spotter Network/Stormtrack pretty much every day. Meanwhile, my Army brother lives in Clarksville, TN, and he HATES storms. Every time I mention my interests, I hear all about how dangerous it is and how crazy I am. So here's my question, hopefully someone might know the answer: What percentage of tornado warnings/siren alarms go to chasers and spotters as mad and crazy as I, and what percentage goes to radar? Any idea? I'd like to think that those of us crazy enough to enjoy this hobby also aid the most in saving lives...
Thanks so much!
~Colette

 

[Jason Berner]

Hey Colette. I don't think your crazy at all and I'll bet that 99.9% of the people here think you're perfectly normal .

I am sure that there are some statistics out there as to how many warnings are radar and how many are reports but I personally don't have that data. I would say that most warnings are radar indicated and, even then, some of the most amazing looking hooks or velocity couplets just don't produce tornados for reasons we are still trying to figure out. The problem with this is that there are so many false alarms on tornado warnings that the public tends to not take "radar" warnings as seriously whereas reports of funnels or tornados by chasers/spotters will put the public into precautionary action. So, in that manner, that definitely helps to make the public safer during warnings.

Hopefully someone has a better idea on the actual statistics for you.