Comments for whatever-weather.com

Comment on No Warning Technology is Failsafe by Tom Meyer

Tom Meyer — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:39:15 +0000

I don’t see us ever winning the battle, as people like to ignore what they think will never get them. And all we do won’t change that. Frankly, we can only put warnings and statements out and after that, we’re done. People have to take responsibility for their safety and if they won’t, it’s not our fault.

Comment on No Warning Technology is Failsafe by GerryCreager

GerryCreager — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:58:49 +0000

Good post. Getting the warnings out is part of the battle. Getting people to pay attention to the weather is another part. But perhaps the hardest part is overcoming the sense that “it never happens here”. That was the feeling in Joplin in 2011, both because they were in the heart of Tornado Alley and never hit hard before, and because they’d survived several days of significant weather with warnings and never had a problem.

The new text system will, I believe, go a long ways toward delivery of the core message. We next need to make sure they trust the message, internalize its contents (warning) as a call to action, and then take action. Until they take the steps to protect themselves, we do, as you point out, have a lot of education to accomplish.

Comment on No Warning Technology is Failsafe by wwx

wwx — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:16:16 +0000

Thank you, Patricia!

Comment on No Warning Technology is Failsafe by Patricia @ Ground Control to Major Mom

Patricia @ Ground Control to Major Mom — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:55:46 +0000

Thanks for writing this — I was working on this very thing for GeekMom.com (it’s been busy so I haven’t gotten very far) — but you did much of the work for me!

I might need to point to this post because you did a good job capturing my sentiment: this will NOT SOLVE people’s responsibility for taking some initiative for being weather-aware.

I had planned to make clear that this texting system will not replace the need for a NOAA weather radio — using the shortware radio spectrum will serve as a redundant system when used in concert with the cell phone texting system.

Thanks for writing this.

Comment on What’s That Weather Word? Albedo by wwx

wwx — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:52:05 +0000

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whatever-Weather/243093210605

Comment on What’s That Weather Word? Albedo by Linktest

Linktest — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:09:47 +0000

Do you people have a facebook fan web page? I looked for one on facebook or twitter but couldn’t find one, I would really like to become a fan!

Comment on Meteorology and Statistics in the Media by Wim van den Berg

Wim van den Berg — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:35:02 +0000

Interesting discussion, it is similar to the statement in Europe that we have less fog nowadays. That has to due with cleaner air, yes, but also can be attributed to new (automatic in stead of manual) measurements.
I want to add one more comment: why not count the reported damage (in dollar) and #cases with reported damage. Of course you need to correct for a trend in number of buildings and the value of properties, but at least this would give you another view on the impact of tornado’s.

Best regards, Wim

Comment on Meteorology and Statistics in the Media by wwx

wwx — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:21:17 +0000

Thank you, James for adding so much to the discussion!
Nicolle

Comment on Meteorology and Statistics in the Media by James Duke

James Duke — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:20:26 +0000

The comments by everyone have been correct, but the explanations are multiple. First, by policy, the government did not issue public tornado warnings until sometime after 1953. There was no more than a rudimentary weather alert & reporting system in place, through nearly all of the nation, until after the 1960s. Starting in the early/mid 1970s, the government began staffing weather preparedness forecasters at forecast centers. While not all forecast offices had such staff initially, those positions were filled by the early 1980s. Principal roles of those meteorologists was to sponsor public education about deadly weather and to build a network of spotters/reporters. The graph shows a distinct and sustained rise in tornado reports afterward.

Subsequently, installation of Doppler weather radars nationwide between about 1992 and 1997 has yielded another bump-up in the number of reported tornadoes.

All of those structural changes in the national weather warning and response effort (issuing warnings, educating the populace, developing report capturing processes, enhancing remote detection technology) has, I believe, let to a continuing increase in the number of tornadoes that are noted(by technology and seen by people) and counted in the national storm climatology.

Comment on Meteorology and Statistics in the Media by wwx

wwx — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:58:31 +0000

Thank you for your input, Jack and Karsten.
The point of this blog entry is to remind everyone not to take what is shown them in the media at face value, especially statistics. So, you have just helped me make that point. I appreciate it.