Thunderstorm Warning/Watch

[docellis]

.

[InvincibleCakeEater]

they are building an ark outside my window

Don't get suckered in.

[cardsfansince82]

I guess I'm the only one that agrees with this rant. I hated living in Missouri and Oklahoma and having a giant state map detailing every county about to get rained on every day in the spring. In Oklahoma they would interrupt programming all the time if there was a cloud in the middle of the sky in the middle of nowhere that might turn into a tornado. The weathermen got more camera time than the anchors. I think a scrolling bar at the bottom of the screen is enough to suffice and only interrupt programming if populated areas are in imminent danger.

[ghostrunner]

I also agree.

It's one thing to have a crawler flash across the very bottom of the screen for a couple minutes. Maybe a small graphic showing where the storm is now. It's another to have a map eight counties wide taking up 15% of the screen when it hasn't even hinted at storm weather outside.

Tornadoes are a different story. Thunderstorms though, it's overkill.

[Radio_Bugtussle]

The weather guessers on TV have to do something to justify their existence...

[clevername]

I also agree.

It's one thing to have a crawler flash across the very bottom of the screen for a couple minutes. Maybe a small graphic showing where the storm is now. It's another to have a map eight counties wide taking up 15% of the screen when it hasn't even hinted at storm weather outside.

Tornadoes are a different story. Thunderstorms though, it's overkill.

that's the thing, though. At least in these parts those t-storms can spawn tornadoes rather rapidly.

[ghostrunner]

I also agree.

It's one thing to have a crawler flash across the very bottom of the screen for a couple minutes. Maybe a small graphic showing where the storm is now. It's another to have a map eight counties wide taking up 15% of the screen when it hasn't even hinted at storm weather outside.

Tornadoes are a different story. Thunderstorms though, it's overkill.

that's the thing, though. At least in these parts those t-storms can spawn tornadoes rather rapidly.

Shouldn't the weathermen know then to issue a tornado warning or watch, if there's a potential? That's usually what a watch means. It just seems to me it's pretty obvious when there's a thunderstorm out.

[jim]

I think having a corner of your TV space taken up is a small price to pay for something that is potentially dangerous. I can think of one case last summer where a warning was issued and my kid was out on his bike, luckily with a cellphone. We called him and told him to get home immediately, and sure enough in about 20 minutes it was not fit to be outside at all. Besides, there are people that rely on those more than you know - i.e. a farmer may need to go out in the fields to get the cows in the barn etc...

edit - at first I thought this was kind of a joke rant... Now I'm reading these responses and people are really upset about this?

New rant - sirens. Noise pollution, what's the point? And those stupid traffic lights that turn red when an emergency vehicle comes through. How inconvenient.

[KyCardinalFan]

I also agree.

It's one thing to have a crawler flash across the very bottom of the screen for a couple minutes. Maybe a small graphic showing where the storm is now. It's another to have a map eight counties wide taking up 15% of the screen when it hasn't even hinted at storm weather outside.

Tornadoes are a different story. Thunderstorms though, it's overkill.

that's the thing, though. At least in these parts those t-storms can spawn tornadoes rather rapidly.

Shouldn't the weathermen know then to issue a tornado warning or watch, if there's a potential? That's usually what a watch means. It just seems to me it's pretty obvious when there's a thunderstorm out.

Weathermen don't issue watches/warnings, the National Weather Service does. One of the TV stations in our area scrolls a "Weather Advisory" in which, in the opinion of the TV weather forcasters, the storm is strong, but dosn't meet the NWS's standard for "severe". I forget the criteria for severe (hail, certain speed wind, etc.), but I'm sure it's on the NWS website. So a storm may be dangerously strong, or potential to be severe, but a warning isn't officially merited.

[ghostrunner]

I also agree.

It's one thing to have a crawler flash across the very bottom of the screen for a couple minutes. Maybe a small graphic showing where the storm is now. It's another to have a map eight counties wide taking up 15% of the screen when it hasn't even hinted at storm weather outside.

Tornadoes are a different story. Thunderstorms though, it's overkill.

that's the thing, though. At least in these parts those t-storms can spawn tornadoes rather rapidly.

Shouldn't the weathermen know then to issue a tornado warning or watch, if there's a potential? That's usually what a watch means. It just seems to me it's pretty obvious when there's a thunderstorm out.

Weathermen don't issue watches/warnings, the National Weather Service does. One of the TV stations in our area scrolls a "Weather Advisory" in which, in the opinion of the TV weather forcasters, the storm is strong, but dosn't meet the NWS's standard for "severe". I forget the criteria for severe (hail, certain speed wind, etc.), but I'm sure it's on the NWS website. So a storm may be dangerously strong, or potential to be severe, but a warning isn't officially merited.

I knew that. Not sure why I said weathermen.

I've been through a ton of thunderstorms and a few hurricanes in my life. An intermittent warning and just a little bit of text is fine, in my opinion. You're only going to get the people watching local television anyway, which is always a decreasing number. For really bad stuff, they usually interrupt all the broadcasts with the emergency , which I have no problem with. It's the huge graphic I find ridiculous.