The folks at the National Weather Service are again
tinkering with the wording of their tornado alerts. They ARE getting better at warning people who
are or soon could be in the path of a tornado, but to me, it’s wasted effort.
I think the old saying has a lot of truth in it: “There are
two kinds of people: those who know what’s happening, and those who wonder what’s
happening.” I’m not sure whether my
profession is what caused me to try and stay informed and alert to what’s
happening in the news and weather, or if it was the other way around. But I’ve known countless people over the
years who basically are unaware of current events. They seem astonished by a snowstorm that’s
been predicted for days by the weather folks; they’re shocked when a new law
takes effect, a law that was passed months ago and about which there have been
scores of news reports.
When it comes to weather, I think there is a further
subdivision among the “people who know what’s happening” category: the people who are scared into their basement
every time the sky clouds up, and the people (like me) who stand on their porch
looking at the sky, waiting for the tornado to pop out of the clouds. I don’t put professional storm-chasers into
either sub-division; they’re pros doing a job.
As you are no doubt aware, there are quite a few amateur storm chasers,
who are in a category of their own which I will not name.
If you haven’t followed this blog for some time, you may not
be aware that I firmly believe the majority of TV weather folks – local and
national – are mainly over-the-top nannies, augmented by a marketing department
that creates messages saying in essence our families will die if we don’t watch
their weather broadcasts.
Here’s a sample of the new language the NWS will test this
tornado season in several mid-west/plains states: “THIS IS AN EXTREMELY
DANGEROUS TORNADO WITH COMPLETE DEVASTATION LIKELY….SEEK SHELTER NOW!!! MOBILE HOMES AND OUTBUILDINGS WILL OFFER NO
SHELTER FROM THIS TORNADO – ABANDON THEM IMMEDIATELY!!”
OK then. They’re
doing this, while admitting to and fully aware that somewhere between
two-thirds and three-quarters of people think the weather folks cry wolf ALL
the time. They’re making the language even
MORE over-the-top, while at the same time acknowledging that most people think
they’re blowing smoke.
I’m going to bet that if you stopped a hundred people at
West Towne or East Towne Mall in Madison and asked them to differentiate
between a Tornado Warning and a Tornado Watch, far more than half would get it
wrong or wouldn’t know. Every time there’s
a storm forecast, there are still arguments on social media about whether a
watch is more urgent than a warning.
Posts like “but it’s only a warning, they haven’t made it a watch yet”
are common.
If the National Weather Service thinks more education about
terms is necessary, I can understand their frustration and why they’d want to
make the language even more stringent.
But every time they warn us, using strong language like above, and the
tornado doesn’t form or doesn’t come anywhere near us, they add to the “cry
wolf” problem. It’s a dilemma: two
choices, neither one of them desirable.
If I’m swept off my back porch into the vortex of a tornado
this season, I’ll die knowing damn well I was taking a risk. But I won’t kick the bucket thinking “what
the hell is happening?!"
