Category Archives: Weather

Why was a commercial tour boat on a Mo. lake during a severe thunderstorm warning?

Update: A grand jury has indicted the boat captain, reports the AP: https://apnews.com/97a50539272942bd9306a5937dc81cfb

I’m saddened and angered by an apparently weather-related tragedy in Branson, Missouri yesterday. News reports indicate that at least 11 people died when an amphibious, commercial tour boat capsized on Table Rock Lake during a warned severe thunderstorm.

Reports indicate that the incident occurred at around 7 p.m. CDT, well after the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Springfield, Missouri placed the area (shaded in yellow on the map above) under a severe thunderstorm warning at 6:32 p.m. The initial warning was in effect until 7:30 p.m., well after the incident occurred. The warning indicated that 60 mph wind gusts were possible as well as “damage to roofs, siding, and trees.”

This warning should not have surprised anyone, because the NWS Storm Prediction Center issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the area at 11:20 a.m. that was in effect until 9 p.m.

As I write this, I find no answers in news media reports to the following critical questions:

  • Did the amphibious tour boat enter the water before or after the NWS issued the severe thunderstorm warning?
  • Were operators of the tour boat aware of the severe thunderstorm warning before the boat capsized?
  • If the boat was already in the water when the NWS issued the warning, did it immediately head for shore at that time?
  • Does Ripley Entertainment, the company that owns the tour boat, have policies regarding how its operators become aware of and react to weather watches and warnings?

I hope investigators uncover and report answers to these questions. In the interim, this tragedy unfortunately reminds me of fatal incidents elsewhere in the country in which organizations apparently ignored severe thunderstorm warnings:

One would hope that incidents like those would teach organizations everywhere to enact and enforce severe weather policies and procedures, and to take severe thunderstorm warnings seriously. I fear that yesterday’s tragedy could be a sign that some organizations still haven’t learned this lesson.

Ham radio operators configure weather radios for citizens

Ham radio operator and SKYWARN storm spotter Steve Haxby, N9MEL configures a weather alert radio for a citizen. WB9SSE photo.
Ham radio operator and SKYWARN storm spotter Steve Haxby, N9MEL configures a weather alert radio for a citizen. WB9SSE photo.

Five radio amateurs assisted members of the general public with configuring weather alert radios during a special event last month. The Kroger store at Georgetown Square on Fort Wayne’s northeast side hosted the April 16 event, which was organized by WANE TV-15 and the Allen County Office of Homeland Security (ACOHS).

Ham radio participants included Tom Baker, N9TB; Al Burke, WB9SSE; Jay Farlow, W9LW; Steve Haxby, N9MEL; and Howard Pletcher, N9ADS. Mark Frazier, meteorologist in charge of the Northern Indiana National Weather Service Office also participated, as did Lori Mayers, assistant director of ACOHS and WANE broadcast meteorologist Greg Shoup and Adam Solarczyk.

After the three-hour event, WANE chief meteorologist Nicholas Ferreri wrote, “Thanks for gathering such a great group of Fort Wayne area volunteers for Monday’s kickoff to WANE Weather Radio Week. I’ve heard many good reviews about Monday’s event.”

Bruce Jones, meteorologist/spokesperson for manufacturer Midland Radio Corporation added, “We appreciate everything SKYWARN/ARRL does to support weather safety both before and during severe weather events.  WANE-TV is helping get the word out there and with partners like you, Lori, and Mark we are building the NOAA Weather Radio audience bigger and bigger every year.  We estimate there are 15-20 million weather radio receivers in the US and Canada and it is important that we keep them all operational and properly tuned. So in addition to setting up new radios, thank you for troubleshooting the older models.”

Promote weather safety by posting a #SafePlaceSelfie

Jay Farlow,. W9LW demonstrates safe sheltering during tornado warnings with a #safeplaceselfie
My safe place during tornado warnings is the only room in our single-story house that has neither windows nor exterior walls. The portable ham radio provides situational awareness while sheltered and a means of communication if the cellular phone system fails.

April 4, 2018 is national safe-place selfie day. It’s a campaign to help educate people about safe places to take shelter, especially during dangerous weather. The National Weather Service explains the campaign on its website.

You can help with the public education effort by simply going to your shelter (whatever it is at your location), taking a photo of yourself and then posting that photo on your social media channels, along with the hash tag #SafePlaceSelfie.

For example, I posted the photo above on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and SnapChat.

Show the world how you shelter! Post a #SafePlaceSelfie.

 

I’m a storm spotter, not a storm chaser!

Well-known tornado researcher Dr. Chuck Doswell
Well-known tornado researcher Dr. Chuck Doswell

I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone out of my way to make sure people know I’m not a storm chaser. I’ll very likely stop doing that, however, in part because of something I heard renowned tornado researcher Dr. Chuck Doswell say this week on a podcast.

It’s well known that the behaviors of some storm chasers have created a negative image of the hobby. We frequently see stories of chasers taking risks that we might consider unacceptable, driving recklessly and/or causing traffic problems. It’s this negative image that made me want to distance myself from the chaser community.

This week, however, Doswell posited that there’s real value in storm chasing, even for (perhaps especially for) storm spotters.

“I’ve never had a problem with spotters who want to be chasers. In fact, I think it’s a great idea,” Doswell said on episode 635 of “WeatherBrains,” the weather podcast hosted by Alabama television meteorologist James Spann.

“Every time I go out (as a chaser), I see something I’ve never seen before,” Doswell continued. “If you’re just an ‘ordinary spotter,’ the number of storms that you would see in any given year is fairly small, unless it’s just a fantastically busy year in your neighborhood that year. But, as a chaser, you can sample more storms. If I’m out for two weeks, I’ll probably see 20, 30 different storms. And of those, maybe some fraction will be supercells and some fraction of those will produce tornadoes. But every year, then, I see a fairly large sample of storms. So, I’ve been doing this for more than 45 years, and so I’ve seen a lot of storms, and I’m still seeing things that I’ve never seen before.”

“So, chasing and spotting are not necessarily opposed to one another,” Doswell added. “I would recommend anyone who’s a serious spotter to go ahead and chase, if for no other reason than to expand their vocabulary of storms.”

WeatherBrains panelist Rick Smith, who works as warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, agreed. “The best spotters, I think, are the ones that are kind of the hybrid chasers and spotters.”

Doswell and Smith make an interesting point. There’s only so much a storm spotter can learn by looking at photos and video. Seeing the real thing in person would logically make it easier for a spotter to later recognize important storm features as a storm approaches the spotter’s home jurisdiction.

So, I hereby discontinue my previous efforts to distinguish myself from storm chasers. In fact, I’m seriously thinking about asking one of the accomplished chasers I know if I can go along on a chase sometime. Heck, if I ever have the spare cash, I might even buy a seat on a well-regarded storm chasing tour, like those offered by Tempest Tours (some of which Doswell himself leads) or the College of DuPage (which allows anyone to easily register as a student for that single class).

One thing you won’t see me doing is trying it on my own. Numerous experts in the field extolled the dangers of solo chasing, as did Dr. David Call of Ball State University during the recent Central Indiana Severe Weather Symposium in Indianapolis.

But perhaps in the future, you’ll hear me saying, “I’m a storm spotter and sometimes a chaser,” rather than the statement in the title of this blog post.

Registration opens for College of DuPage storm-chasing tours

College of Dupage storm chasing tour participants view a developing storm. Photo credit: College of DuPage Meteorology
College of Dupage storm chasing tour participants view a developing storm. Photo credit: College of DuPage Meteorology

Registration has opened to all for this year’s storm-chasing tours operated by the College of Dupage (COD), which is headquartered in the western suburbs of Chicago.

What makes these tours unusual and of interest to any and all weather enthusiasts, is that you don’t have to be a COD student to join a trip. (Technically, if you’re not already enrolled, you pay a $20 application fee and COD makes you an official student for the trip, but everyone pays the tuition rates they’d pay if they were permanent residents of COD’s district).

I’m certain that I’d learn more about severe meteorology, which would help me be a more effective storm spotter.

The total cost for someone who isn’t already a student, therefore, is $1,290. That fee includes a minimum of eight nights of hotel stay;
transportation costs while on the trip; teaching and instruction of severe weather analysis, spotting techniques, and other meteorological phenomena; and three hours of college credit.

That price seems to compare favorably to those of some of the commercial tornado tour companies out there. Plus, everyone participating on a COD trip can expect to learn about thunderstorms, tornadoes and storm chasing from a respected instructor, such as Prof. Paul Sirvatka. COD has been taking students out storm chasing since 1989, enabling it to offer, as its web site reads, “more experience than any of the major storm chasing tour operators that we are aware of.”

I’ve never taken one of these trips. In fact, I’m not all that interested in storm chasing, although I’ve been a SKYWARN® storm spotter for more than three decades. I can see, however, some advantages to a trip like this for someone like me. I’m certain that I’d learn more about severe meteorology, which would help me be a more effective storm spotter. In addition, the experience of watching storms produce tornadoes would help me better understand what to look for when I’m at home making reports to the National Weather Service.

To learn more about COD’s storm chasing trips, visit the program’s dedicated website at http://weather.cod.edu/chasing/.

Why do some storm chasers call 911 vs NWS?

After a small tornado outbreak in Indiana and neighboring states yesterday, I’ve been looking at some tornado videos published by storm chasers. On at least two of them, one can hear on the audio track references to calling 911 to report the tornado. On one, you can hear a chaser instructing a public safety answering point (PSAP) operator to activate warning sirens.

Here’s my question: Why would storm chasers — who one would expect to be familiar with the National Weather Service (NWS) warning system — call 911 instead of the NWS?

Why would storm chasers — who one would expect to be familiar with the National Weather Service (NWS) warning system — call 911 instead of the NWS?

Sure, a call to the local PSAP might lead to activation of outdoor warning sirens, which might alert some nearby residents — especially ones who are outdoors — that something is going on. But it won’t lead to activation of NOAA weather radios, wireless emergency alerts on cellular phones, or alerts on broadcast channels until and unless the NWS knows about the tornado and issues an official tornado warning.

You might think that a call to 911 will get a report to the NWS. In reality, that’s not necessarily true. I’ve attended several meetings of an NWS integrated warning team, where PSAP representatives have repeatedly said that during periods of severe weather, they’re so busy answering phones, that they don’t have time to  call NWS. And an NWS warning coordination meteorologist has personally told me that his office yearns to know what citizens are reporting to 911, but can’t get the information.

Granted, calling 911 is easy, especially for chasers whose anxiety levels have reached a near panic stage as they stare down tornadoes. After all, calling 911 when something bad happens is almost a reflex. But a single call to the NWS would get life-saving information to a whole lot more people who are in the path of the storm.

There is a challenge, though, especially for chasers who are always moving from county to county (and for some, state to state) as they try to get in position to see tornadoes. They must always know exactly where they are and they must know which NWS office to call. Adjacent counties are not always served by the same NWS office.

The first part (knowing exactly where you are) is challenging enough, when you’re driving through unfamiliar territory. I’ve heard numerous spotters and chasers, who, while trying to make a report to NWS offices, were unable to say exactly where they were, much less where the funnel cloud or tornado was. Knowing what county your are in and knowing what NWS office serves that county is even more difficult. In truth, any NWS office will accept a tornado report from outside its area and get that information immediately to the correct office. So calling the “wrong” NWS office is probably still better than calling 911, when it comes to warning the most people.

But there’s an even better solution. Members of Spotter Network, Inc. can use a combination of location-reporting software on their smartphones and the Spotter Network website to learn immediately the phone number of the NWS office that covers whatever location they’re in at the moment.

University demonstrates questionable understanding of tornado warnings http://w9lw.farlowconsulting.com/2017/11/05/university-demonstrates-questionable-understanding-of-tornado-warnings/
The Spotter Network website can tell members where they are, which NWS office to call, and the phone number for that office.

By using the location-beaconing software, staying logged into the Spotter Network website and bookmarking the “Submit Severe Report” page above, chasers and spotters can learn the best NWS number to call with a couple touches of their smartphones. The result will be warning a lot more people a lot sooner than calling 911 can.

What residents need to know about their new outdoor warning siren

Tornado siren. Outdoor warning sirens are not intended to be heard indoors.

Blogger’s note: Below is an article I submitted to the “The Waynedale News,” a neighborhood newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If refers to the installation of an outdoor warning siren in a neighborhood that had been without one for years. The newspaper published the article July 7, 2017.

The new outdoor warning siren that’s coming to Waynedale brings with it some true risks that area residents might not have considered. Chief among those risks are over reliance and desensitization. Continue reading