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Originally Posted by venture79
I think most forget May 3rd too quickly. That tornado likely would have killed more if the media wasn't running wall to wall coverage. The fact that they were covering the storm that would eventually produce the tornado that would hit the OKC metro area (formed just south of Amber) for nearly 2 hours...gave an unprecidented lead time for tornado safety precautions to be put to use.
What a lot of people don't see, are the public yet internal (to the weather community) comments on the severity of the situation. We hear things such as "Slight Risk or Moderate Risk" of servere weather...but most in the public don't understand what it means. Then there is the level of watches. We all know the Tornado Watches and Severe Thunderstorm watches...but there is another higher level for those that is rarely broadcasted. They are called PDS Watches or Particularly Dangerous Situation watch boxes. May 3rd was an example where a PDS Tornado watch was put into effect. This past spring/summer...we've had a couple of these PDS watch boxes including the rare PDS Severe Thunderstorm watch. That even was June 16th...when they were expecting a derecho event of widespread severe winds with a line of storms. Winds were recorded up to 103 mph that day in some areas with widespread 50-70 mph winds.
My whole point...yeah it may seem over kill to the general public, but usually it is because in the background the weather community is monitoring a situation that can become very explosive and dangerous - a PDS day.
When ever there is a question about the weather...I would always highly recommend getting the information yourself. This not only educates you on understanding the difference between events, but you know how to prepare by the terminology being relayed.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/enhanced.php
Those are the two best links for the general public to use, and you'll have access to most of the thoughts and forecasts by the NWS. |
Sorry to be so "late to the dance on this".
I'm an OU meteorology student interning at a Tulsa TV station right now. Even most TV meteorologists will agree that severe weather coverage is too crazy. But, you have to keep up with what the guy next door is doing. Gary England probably said it best in his book "Weathering The Storm". I'll paraphrase, but he essentially said that he once interrupted programming to assure viewers that a storm that other stations were doing on air warnings about was not severe and had no risk of becoming severe. He then received a phone call from a viewer who said, "If it isn't severe, why are YOU on the air?".
May 3rd is always brought up as a defense when people say that there are too many on-air interruptions. May 3rd was a major aberration in the world of weather. Chances are, we will never see a day with kind of concentrated severe weather again in our lifetimes.
Meteorologists should not interrupt programming for storms that are not severe. But, if someone does, so will everyone else.
The bottom line for television...it's all about ratings. Severe weather in Oklahoma generates HUGE ratings. So, the viewer is in a bit of a fix. They want the severe weather information, but not if it is affecting their tiny little area. Then again, if the viewer gets to see a tornado ravaging a community live from a helicopter, it's time to get the popcorn. In short, the viewers have no one to blame but themselves for the onslaught of severe weather coverage.