Ugly storms tonight....

[nathanm]

quote:Originally posted by bugo


A couple of weeks ago we had a round of storms, and a tornado warning was issued for Tulsa County about 2 or 3 AM.  The cell in question was near the Keystone Dam area and tracked towards Skiatook. The tornado sirens went off in Midtown.  In no way was any of the city of Tulsa in danger (except for maybe the northern fringes).  I had some friends call and ask what was going on (they know I'm kind of a weather junkie) and I told them to just go back to sleep.  Later, somebody told me they heard the sirens go off and got in their closet and stayed in there for 20 minutes.  Why do they do this?  Okies are afraid of the weather enough as it is, so why the false alarms?  I'm assuming this happens because tornado warnings are issued for counties instead of cities.  Can't they do any better?

Tornadic storms often turn right, and at the time, it wasn't at all clear that the tornadic storm wasn't going to move through downtown and somewhere between admiral and 15th street. (I am also a weather junkie []) Also, the national weather service had issued a tornado warning that covered most of the City of Tulsa north of I-44 that was reduced in size 15 or 20 minutes later to north of about 15th street.

Since the sirens way down here near the Creek didn't go off (although one could faintly hear the sirens in the distance) Tulsa does presumably have some sort of zone system so that they don't have to blow them all at once, but I don't know how finely grained the zones are.

[breitee]

quote:Originally posted by Steve

Like most people, I get very frustrated at the Tulsa TV stations' weather coverage, especially when the threat is not near my home in the City of Tulsa, but a storm down by Sallisaw or up near Kansas.  But we should also remember that the Tulsa broadcast stations not only serve the City, but a wide geographic area, from southern Kansas to southeast OK.  I try to remind myself of that everytime they preempt.

But I do think their on-air presentation is getting out of hand with all the multi-colored radar screens and displays that mean nothing to the average viewer.  Travis Meyer (and others) should be forced to sit down and watch a 4-hour tape of his incessant babbling and repetition.

They would probably get a stormgasm.

[bugo]

quote:Originally posted by nathanm

quote:Originally posted by bugo


A couple of weeks ago we had a round of storms, and a tornado warning was issued for Tulsa County about 2 or 3 AM.  The cell in question was near the Keystone Dam area and tracked towards Skiatook. The tornado sirens went off in Midtown.  In no way was any of the city of Tulsa in danger (except for maybe the northern fringes).  I had some friends call and ask what was going on (they know I'm kind of a weather junkie) and I told them to just go back to sleep.  Later, somebody told me they heard the sirens go off and got in their closet and stayed in there for 20 minutes.  Why do they do this?  Okies are afraid of the weather enough as it is, so why the false alarms?  I'm assuming this happens because tornado warnings are issued for counties instead of cities.  Can't they do any better?

Tornadic storms often turn right, and at the time, it wasn't at all clear that the tornadic storm wasn't going to move through downtown and somewhere between admiral and 15th street. (I am also a weather junkie []) Also, the national weather service had issued a tornado warning that covered most of the City of Tulsa north of I-44 that was reduced in size 15 or 20 minutes later to north of about 15th street.

Since the sirens way down here near the Creek didn't go off (although one could faintly hear the sirens in the distance) Tulsa does presumably have some sort of zone system so that they don't have to blow them all at once, but I don't know how finely grained the zones are.

I'm at 51st and Lewis.  There was absolutely no danger to this area.  The storm was tracking east-northeast, and had shown no signs of a sudden shift to the south-southeast which it would have had to have done to reach downtown, much less the southern parts of midtown.  And, had the storm taken a sudden right hand turn and headed this way, there was plenty of time for the NWS to modify the tornado warning.

The only effect the sirens had going off was to disturb and terrify residents of an area that was in no danger whatsoever.

[JLCinOKC]

I think the weather coverage is even worse (more obnoxious) here in Oklahoma City!  You've not seen anything until you've seen Gary England drop an F-Bomb and tell you  that you are going to die!  The other two stations are just as bad.  It's all just a way to plug their new chopper and improved doppler radar for ratings.  Blah blah blah.

[nathanm]

quote:Originally posted by bugo
I'm at 51st and Lewis.  There was absolutely no danger to this area.  The storm was tracking east-northeast, and had shown no signs of a sudden shift to the south-southeast which it would have had to have done to reach downtown, much less the southern parts of midtown.  And, had the storm taken a sudden right hand turn and headed this way, there was plenty of time for the NWS to modify the tornado warning.

The only effect the sirens had going off was to disturb and terrify residents of an area that was in no danger whatsoever.

When the warning was issued, the storm was still in Creek County west of Sapulpa. Last I checked, that's quite far south of midtown. Yes, it was moving northeast and was turning more northerly, but it wasn't a foregone conclusion at the time the warning was issued.

Our local weather stations are often 5 minutes or more behind on relaying warnings to the public, even when they're in full "stormgasm" mode. Only on rare occasions do they beat my feed.

Again, it may be that the City just doesn't have the control over the sirens needed to only blow them north of, say, 31st street and not south of there. I don't know. I do know that I wouldn't have issued the warning all the way south to 51st street, but probably would have issued it to 31st or 21st were I in their shoes. It may not have made a lick of difference to which sirens the City ended up activating, as they may have had no choice if they wanted to activate them in the warned areas.

[TheTed]

Would've been nice if Channel 8 would've allowed me to watch some sporting events in HD this weekend.

All of Saturday night's NBA game was in standard def so they could have their weather information at the bottom of the screen.

The Indy 500 was also in standard def due to weather scrolls. At least they got rid of the weather info and showed the last few laps in high-def.

When I turned it to the Indy 500 the only thing happening was a tornado watch east of here and t'storm warnings in Arkansas. They kept showing maps of storms traveling east of Fayetteville and Van Buren.

Those places have their own affiliates!

I think channel 8 is the only one of our local network stations without the capacity to broadcast in HD when they show weather overlays.

Get with it, you cheap bastards at Channel 8!!!