Tornado Blizzard?!?

[rdale]

During a Tornado Warning for Decatur Co (Indiana) a storm chaser reported that blizzard conditions blew trucks off the road! How often does that happen?

===
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN
526 PM EST WED NOV 24 2004

..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION...ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..

0524 PM BLIZZARD 2 NW GREENSBURG 39.36N 85.51W
11/24/2004 DECATUR IN STORM CHASER

SEVERAL TRUCKS BLOWN OFF ROAD.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

You know your chase is a bust when....



Aaron

 

[mikegeukes]

During the year, I have notice from time to time,Blizzard being listed as a event in the Local Storm Reports, instead of a severe weather event like tornado, hail, thunderstorm winds. Wonder if this is a software problem.

Mike

 

[Chris Geelhart]

Originally posted by mikegeukes
During the year, I have notice from time to time,Blizzard being listed as a event in the Local Storm Reports, instead of a severe weather event like tornado, hail, thunderstorm winds. Wonder if this is a software problem.

It is more of an "operator error" issue. The Local Storm Report program on AWIPS has several drop-down menus, including for event type and event source. If this is not selected, the program uses the first option on the list. The offices that produced the bad LSR's you mentioned probably have "BLIZZARD" as the beginning of the list.

I have seen similar problems with some LSR's at times (persistently listing "AIRPLANE PILOT", which is the first option on the source list).

Chris G.