OKC Weather Coverage Wars 2013

[ou48A]

This is a few weeks old but this is a good Toby Rowland interview with KWTV News 9 meteorologist Michael Armstrong.

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[bandnerd]

5 Dead in drainage tunnel

Sorry if it's already been posted. It was up on Newsok today.

[Anonymous.]

Intense story. But that is the dumbest place to take shelter... That is the water passage that runs directly beneath the Dell parking lot and building. Sounds like they also stayed down there WAY too long.

[OKCTalker]

"The survivors said they were swayed to flee the apartment by warnings from Mike Morgan, KFOR-TV chief meteorologist."

[ou48A]

"The survivors said they were swayed to flee the apartment by warnings from Mike Morgan, KFOR-TV chief meteorologist."

It almost seems like there’s a vendetta against Mike Morgan who as far as I know was only telling people to leave if they didn’t feel safe. He has no idea if what type of structures people live in.

People have got to take their own personal resposablitys serious enough to have their own plans to keep their own families safe in all situations. If they don’t know then it’s their job to educate them self’s about the threats.

But the paper can help. They should be educating the public about how they can stay safe and about how we can build stronger homes (for low cost) rather than trying to make scape goats out of people who were only trying to help. This same type of information should be distributed at schools, civic groups, churches, and such.

[OKCTalker]

Who are these apologist revisionists who keep defending Mike Morgan with misrepresentations of what he said?

KFOR Meteorologist Advises Viewers to "Go South," Flee Oklahoma City Tornado (5-31-13) - YouTube

In the first 1:10 of this video, Mike Morgan is emphatic - EMPHATIC - that you must leave if you can't get below ground. Forgive any small inaccuracies in transcription, but here's my best shot at what he said as he all but ordered people out of their houses and into the storm:

"You've gotta be out of the way or below ground."
"You cannot be above ground in Yukon, you've gotta go south and you've gotta go now."
"Go to your neighbor's house, go wherever, but do it right now - right now."
"I'd recommend going southbound, you need to part the water with this, part the water and get out of its way."
"I'd go southbound and do it now."
"So don't wait. If you can't go below ground...yes...it's still on the ground on the south side of I-40 right now. Go south. Get on down here towards West Moore. Somewhere down here. This is safe down here. Get down here. Get way down here. Down by Newcastle. Just take I-44 and just go down to Newcastle. Get out of the way of it. If you can get down here you're going to be safe."
"You need to be below ground, storm cellar or basement. If you can drive south, anywhere around White Water Bay or State Fair Park, the ballpark, downtown Oklahoma City...(continues listing areas to evacuate)...you need to drive south now or get below ground."
"If you can leave south Oklahoma City and go south, do it right now."

Two choices: Get below ground or get on the roads.

[Anonymous.]

If you want to get super technical (you are posting exact phrases and using the ultimatum of below ground or drive) - then the choices were to die/get injured in your car from the tornado or die/get injured from the tornado in your home. Was anyone on I-44 south following Mike's advice killed or injured in their vehicle from the tornado? No? then Mike injured/killed nobody.

Now should Mike have emphatically stated:

"do not go below ground in a storm drain"
"if driving in your car, do not cross water covered roadways"
"do not get out of your car and hide in storm drains"
"do not hide under underpasses"
"do not speed"
"remember to use your signal"
"do not wreck into people"

At what point does the blame finally fall onto the person?


I feel bad for the children who were injured or killed because of their guardian's stupidity.

[OKCTalker]

Debating phraseology and parsing the transcript won't win the day on this one. I'm posting his quotes because people keep saying that Mike Morgan didn't tell viewers to get into their cars and drive. He did, repeatedly.

I have always been a strong proponent of personal responsibility, especially in times of crisis. Regrettably, some people don't come up with plans and they're caught at the last minute in desperate need of someone to tell them what to do. Heaven help them if they're taking their advice from a TV personality wearing a sparkly tie.

[Spartan]

Steve Shaw I think? At times I'm like "wow he's being an ass" and other times I was like "OMG that's hilarious for point out the stupidity of people." Driving down a road covered in water is never a good idea. You just have to be stupid to do it unless you are able to see the paint on the roadway and can easily judge the depth of the water. Granted, the road could be completely washed out in another section that you don't realize...so better off just not doing it.



Hopefully people keep this in mind and show Fallin the door next year - but they won't. People have short term memories and don't care. Faith, Family, Freedom is all it takes. Part of that freedom is to continue to not require at least protection for students at schools. I'll gladly give back the income tax cut to pay for the schools...as well as my tax dollars being used (or attempted to be used) for the Indian museum, that Tulsa museum, the Capital reconstruction project, and the dozens of other projects that can be funded privately.

Agreed. If every media outlet in the state wasn't a shill for the GOP, Fallin would probably be eviscerated for choosing conservativism over kids safety.

[bandnerd]

If you want to get super technical (you are posting exact phrases and using the ultimatum of below ground or drive) - then the choices were to die/get injured in your car from the tornado or die/get injured from the tornado in your home. Was anyone on I-44 south following Mike's advice killed or injured in their vehicle from the tornado? No? then Mike injured/killed nobody.

Now should Mike have emphatically stated:

"do not go below ground in a storm drain"
"if driving in your car, do not cross water covered roadways"
"do not get out of your car and hide in storm drains"
"do not hide under underpasses"
"do not speed"
"remember to use your signal"
"do not wreck into people"

At what point does the blame finally fall onto the person?


I feel bad for the children who were injured or killed because of their guardian's stupidity.

Right, this is why I posted the story. What happened to them was tragic, but incredibly preventable. They made the choice to go into a storm drain, which is never, ever the answer in a storm. Because it's a STORM drain. There to catch and send away storm waters. Why anyone would go in one is beyond me.

We did the dance for a minute, do we stay here with no underground shelter, or do we go to a place where we could have a safe room or shelter. We saw it turn south and stayed. I was prepared to pack up the car or ride it out in the laundry room, the cats were already in their crates and ready to go. I wasn't going to flee without a plan, and I wasn't going to flee because a bedazzled tie told me to.

[venture]

So somewhat disappointed by this. Started seeing the WeatherRate stuff pushed more on KOCO and was hoping they would stay out of this market. For those not familiar. This is a company that supposed tracks all forecasts of local stations, compares it to the actual outcomes, and then assigns a score.

TV stations then have the option to PURCHASE the license to say they are "Certified Most Accurate" for their market. They state that paying doesn't influence the ratings and they only allow the "most accurate" station to purchase the licensing, but they don't publish their data for third party verification from what I can tell.

I'm not holding anything at all against Damon and his team, as I'm sure this was more of a station management decisions completely...but it seems to be one of those small town gimmicks that doesn't belong in the most prestigious (if you will) weather market in the country.

More information about them can be found here: Welcome to WeatheRate
One thing to note...their website has been updated (for the most part) since 2011, which doesn't really look good for their credibility.

[mugofbeer]

So somewhat disappointed by this. Started seeing the WeatherRate stuff pushed more on KOCO and was hoping they would stay out of this market. For those not familiar. This is a company that supposed tracks all forecasts of local stations, compares it to the actual outcomes, and then assigns a score.

TV stations then have the option to PURCHASE the license to say they are "Certified Most Accurate" for their market. They state that paying doesn't influence the ratings and they only allow the "most accurate" station to purchase the licensing, but they don't publish their data for third party verification from what I can tell.

I'm not holding anything at all against Damon and his team, as I'm sure this was more of a station management decisions completely...but it seems to be one of those small town gimmicks that doesn't belong in the most prestigious (if you will) weather market in the country.

More information about them can be found here: Welcome to WeatheRate
One thing to note...their website has been updated (for the most part) since 2011, which doesn't really look good for their credibility.

That kind of reminds me about similar "services" such as one in my industry where you can purchase a listing as one of the "best financial advisors in (name your city)." There are also those pages that advertise the best restaurants, plastic surgeons, dentists, etc in airline magazines.

[Anonymous.]

They are really pushing this, too. There is even a billboard toting this @ I235/I44.

I agree it is super small-time, and especially for this specific market.

[jn1780]

Mike Morgan is using part of the news cast to promote Reed Timmer's new tornado chasing web series.

[boscorama]

I found Mike annoying, the way he was hovering and telling everything, rather than letting Reed say more. And he exhibited in body language a controlling nature. Cool it, Mike!

[jn1780]

Mike Morgan defends his actions and explains how his own "high risk" severe weather outlooks are "better" than the NWS because its takes into account social science. Frankly, I think it makes the public dumber in the long run.

Starts at the 20 minute mark. I got bored after 40 mins. lol

[Dubya61]

No one can take these TV weather clowns seriously at this point. It is all hype/doom and gloom/fear mongering bs with these buffoons. They need to put on red noses and big floppy shoes.

So, I wonder why there is all the hype? Do the TV stations make money when the go "full weather emergency" mode? With this Tuesday morning's non-storm, Channel 5 pre-empted Good Morning America and some other syndicated programming. Often, when they go "full weather emergency" mode, they even avoid commercials. How does the station make money during that coverage? Is it a loss leader to snare viewers to other stuff? I would imagine they lose money big time during "full weather emergency" mode.

[RadicalModerate]

So . . . I accidentally had The Local Weather Coverage on, in the background, while dealing with some mundane tasks around the house, and The Weather Guy says, "Temperatures are Skyrocketing." I like clichés as much as the next person, yet . . . Wouldn't that mean, technically, that they are actually Decreasing? Or is it just a myth that it's a little cooler a few miles up in the stratosphere?

[venture]

Just FYI, the new thread for OKC Media concerning weather is in the weather section.

Oklahoma Media - Weather Coverage - OKCTalk