"TORNADO EMERGENCY"

[Mikey Gribble]

Around here there is no way a tornado emergency would be relayed to the public via a crawler at the bottom of the screen. Even when tornadic storms are in butthumper county, they pretty much keep continous coverage going if there are confirmed tornadoes. Getting the warning from your TV is probably the best place to get it around here during tornado situations. They immediately relay NWS statements, they follow that up with radar images and detailed information about the storm and you usually have chasers relaying reports if not streaming video while this is happening. I can't think of a better way for the general public to stay informed of whats going on during a tornado warning. At least that is how our coverage is around here.
If the NWS issued a tornado emergency, all the local TV stations would be on that like a duck on a june bug. They would explain exactly what it means and it without a doubt would get whoevers attention was watching. Its similiar to the OKC mets saying people need to be below ground to survive a particularly strong tornado. In both cases you are just taking your warning to the public farther than you normally would and if they don't get the point from that, then I don't know how you'll ever get their attention.
Just my two cents, but I don't understand how you couldn't think it was a good idea to have stronger language available to you for particularly dangerous situations (no pun intended). How is that a bad thing?

edit - they ought to just take it one step farther and make it okay to drop F-bombs during particularly dangerous situations. If they can't get your attention with the tornado warning/emergency, just have the weather radio and tv mets saying, "listen, this is fing dangerous. Get the F below ground". lol that would be awesome. Nothing like a little profanity to get the point across.

 

[Mike Moore]

edit - they ought to just take it one step farther and make it okay to drop F-bombs during particularly dangerous situations. If they can't get your attention with the tornado warning/emergency, just have the weather radio and tv mets saying, "listen, this is fing dangerous. Get the F below ground". lol that would be awesome. Nothing like a little profanity to get the point across.

I love it!!!! And Reed could do the voiceovers for the crawls... screaming "back the..." well nevermind.

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I love it!!!! And Reed could do the voiceovers for the crawls... screaming "back the..." well nevermind.

Wouldn't the swearing be great for weather coverage.
Instead of the regular boring coverage during an event like OKC or Greensburg you get the on air mets dropping F bombs like its their job. They could even let the chasers get in on it...

"we have a big f***ing tornado here. This thing is really tearing some sh** up. If you are in the path of this storm you need to get the f*** below ground."

I'd watch.

 

[Tim Shriver]

I wonder if Howard Stern ever thought of doing the weather?

Tim

 

[Elaine Spencer]

I also noticed that ILX issued a Tornado Emergency for Peoria last night, something they have never (to my knowledge) done before. However, LOT stuck with regular Tornado Warnings for Streator, Dwight, and Kankakee/St. Anne, though with wording emphasizing the "extremely dangerous" and "life threatening" situation at hand.

If it had been up to me I would have issued a Tornado Emergency for Streator and Dwight, and probably also for Kankakee (though the storm did end up going south of them). But the MIC must have seen it differently.

Either way, however, the warnings "worked" in that they kept people from being killed or seriously injured. Perhaps as long as the warning emphasizes that a confirmed tornado (not just radar indicated) is headed directly for the warned community, it doesn't really matter whether it's dubbed "Tornado Emergency" or not.

 

[Donovan Gruner]

If I'm not mistaken, I do believe the NWS in the Quad Cities issued a Tornado Emergency on June 5th regarding the tornado entering the Peoria, Illinois area.

 

[Jeff Duda]

If I'm not mistaken, I do believe the NWS in the Quad Cities issued a Tornado Emergency on June 5th regarding the tornado entering the Peoria, Illinois area.

It was actually the Lincoln, IL office that issued the Tornado Emergency in that case:

304
WWUS53 KILX 060129
SVSILX

SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
829 PM CDT SAT JUN 5 2010

ILC143-060145-
/O.CON.KILX.TO.W.0011.000000T0000Z-100606T0145Z/
PEORIA IL-
829 PM CDT SAT JUN 5 2010

...THIS IS A TORNADO EMERGENCY FOR THE PEORIA METROPOLITAN AREA...

A TORNADO WARNING CONTINUES UNTIL 845 PM CDT FOR PEORIA COUNTY.

AT 824 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR AND STORM
SPOTTERS WERE TRACKING A LARGE AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TORNADO. THIS
TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR HANNA CITY...OR 8 MILES WEST OF PEORIA...
MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH.

PERSONNEL AT THE GREATER PEORIA AIRPORT ALSO SEE THIS TORNADO FROM
THE CONTROL TOWER.

LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
PEORIA...WEST PEORIA...NORWOOD AND ALTA.

 

[Donovan Gruner]

It was actually the Lincoln, IL office that issued the Tornado Emergency in that case:

Ah, ok. All I remember is being in the car driving east on I-80, yelling at my buddy who convinced me the show was going down in Iowa. I hate that day. Sorry, Joe.

 

[Mike Smith]

Another TE Bust

The Peoria TE message was a bust just like the vast majority of TE's.

Consider the criteria cited at the link above:
A TORNADO EMERGENCY means that significant, widespread damage with a high likelihood of numerous fatalities is expected to continue with a strong and violent tornado.

None of this occurred.

All tornado warnings are emergencies. So, the TE message is redundant and risks "training" people not to pay attention to "ordinary" tornado warnings.

We simply do not have the scientific skill to determine whether a tornado will continue on the ground or lift and, if it stays on the ground, whether it will move right or left or continue on the same path.

If we acquire that skill, my opinion on TE's will likely change.

 

[Mark Sefried]

The problem with ILX's tornado emergency on 6/5/10 was that chasers were reporting a large and violent tornado while it was near Elmwood. In fact this was not clearly the case as it was only 50 yards wide at max and was rated ef-2. Thankfully the supercell cycled and the meso occluded right before it was going to hit the north side of Peoria. A weak e-f0 tube did touchdown briefly on the far north side of Peoria. The supercell went on to produce another e-f2 tornado which was 200 yards wide just a little NE of Peoria. I remember the day well as I was home watching my daughter because my wife was on a girls night out that was planned 3 months prior, lol. Perfect timing.... She did fell bad about it and went on to take me out to dinner a few weeks later.

 

[Donovan Gruner]

Honestly, I think it's a great idea. However, if it is abused, people won't take it seriously. And I do agree that people may pay less attention to regular tornado warnings if it is implemented too often.

 

[Greg Stumpf]

The Peoria TE message was a bust just like the vast majority of TE's.

I'll have to dig around for the reference/information, but I believe it was shown that TEs only have a False Alarm Rate of around 40-50%, compared to the national average of all Tornado Warnings of about 70-75%.

What does this mean? That a Tornado Emergency conveys higher probability of a tornado. The TE is simply a "high probability" tornado warning.

BTW - don't take this statement to mean I'm in favor of TEs. But I am in favor of including certainty and other relevant detail in warnings to draw attention to higher likelihood events. Emergency responders can consider calling for additional help if a larger-than-usual event is about to occur.

 

[Mike Smith]

I'll have to dig around for the reference/information, but I believe it was shown that TEs only have a False Alarm Rate of around 40-50%, compared to the national average of all Tornado Warnings of about 70-75%.

I'd be delighted to be proven wrong. I'd love to see the statistics that these criteria were met in 50-60% of the TE's: A TORNADO EMERGENCY means that significant, widespread damage with a high likelihood of numerous fatalities is expected to continue with a strong and violent tornado. (from NWS).

Look forward to seeing your post. Thanks.

Mike

 

[Greg Stumpf]

I'd be delighted to be proven wrong. I'd love to see the statistics that these criteria were met in 50-60% of the TE's: A TORNADO EMERGENCY means that significant, widespread damage with a high likelihood of numerous fatalities is expected to continue with a strong and violent tornado. (from NWS).

That's not what I said.

 

[Scott Sims]

chasers were reporting a large and violent tornado while it was near Elmwood. In fact this was not clearly the case as it was only 50 yards wide at max and was rated ef-2.

--Mark Sefried.

I know Mark, and he is a good guy, so I'm not nitpicking what he said, because he pretty much is right. I also am pretty sure he is not attacking me personally, but since part of this particular 'Tornado Emergency' is based partially on my own reports that were referenced, I thought I should clarify my involvement and some timelines.

This first report at about 7:59PM containing 'large' is my fault, and I regret using that word as it was wrong. I typed the word 'large' in a moment of super-excited stupidity(I'm sure none of you has suffered from this near a Tornado). My attention was torn between looking at the tornado, looking at my GPS to decide what routes to take and trying to take pictures. I apologize to all residents of greater Peoria and the issuers at ILX for my wording on that report, but I don't regret making the report in general and trying to help the public. Hopefully it helped some people in Elmwood several minutes later.

The 'violent' word was used in subsequent reports, not the first one, and I do not really regret that wording since we saw large debris(roofs) and powerflashes in Yate's city and Elmwood before, and had just witnessed pieces of debris going from ground all the way into the cloud in a matter of a few seconds.

Here is the video of that first tornado that I wrongly reported as 'large'.
Watch video >

The 'Tornado emergency' was issued at 8:29PM after I had made reports of two more tornadoes(at 8:10PM and 8:22PM) from the same cyclic supercell (none of which reported as 'large, but I did have 'violent motion' mentioned), and it also said the Peoria control tower also could also 'see the tornado'. At this point the storm was near I-74 moving well into the Peoria Metro, and chaser accounts were likely secondary(and rightfully so) to the professionals at the airport.

This is the video(starting about 2:00 on the video) of what we were witnessing(along with our discussion of reports and what we were seeing) from near Hanna City about the time of the issuance of the 'Tornado Emergency'. This is likely what the Control tower guys were watching too, and it appears to be a 'large' circulation to me, with small vorticies within it. It did not appear to be strong on the ground at this point, just wide. So that combined with the fact that reports were already made and warnings already up, I didn't make a fourth tornado report. I have no opinion on whether 'tornado emergencies' should be issued or not, but I felt bad about my role in this one if it is going to be labeled as a false alarm.

Watch video >


This is the video of the tornado I was watching before(and after) making the report with 'violent motion'.
Watch video >

Here are my actual reports for this event through spotternetwork.
5932;;2010-06-06 00:38:00;;Wall;;;;40.787000;;-90.375000;;Y;;2 miles SE of Abingdon, IL;;Wall cloud quickly changing and reforming to our north about 4 miles.
5937;;2010-06-06 00:59:00;;Tor;;;;40.779000;;-90.043000;;Y;;1 miles W of Yates City, IL;;Large elephant trunk tornado with power flashes and debris in the air one mile north
5943;;2010-06-06 01:10:00;;Tor;;;;40.756000;;-89.961000;;Y;;2 miles SSE of Elmwood, IL;;Another Torndado down east of elmowood with violent motion 3 miles northeast of my location. Multi Vortex
5946;;2010-06-06 01:22:00;;Tor;;;;40.734000;;-89.839000;;Y;;3 miles N of Eden, IL;;Another multivortex tornado on the ground growing into a stovepipe. Rapid upward motion. 2-3 miles northeast of my location