Storm warnings to become more precise

[Ranger12 46]

Finally, no issuing a tornado warning for a whole county when it only effects 5-10% of it.

Link

HUNTSVILLE — Beginning in October, watches and warnings issued by the National Weather Service will zero in on locales within counties instead of simply covering an entire county.

Michael Coyne, a meteorologist in charge at the Huntsville NWS office who helped evaluate the new system, said the warnings will be more precise, based on the position of the storm or threat.

"Everybody in Huntsville knows where Joe Davis Stadium is, so that may be included in some of those positions," Coyne said. "This is just an avenue for people to get better information and make more-informed decisions."

The changes, which take effect on Oct. 1, are described by NWS officials as a major enhancement in the service.

Morgan County Emergency Management Agency Director Eddie Hicks said more precise NWS warnings will streamline the county's system of sounding only the emergency sirens serving threatened areas during a storm. EMA workers no longer will have to narrow down alerts based on radar pictures showing atmospheric rotation, he said.

[AUslug 1]

Well I'm sure Dan Satterfield is just up in arms over this. Now he will have to calm down and not freak out over the weather. Maybe this will force him to retire, please oh please let that happen.

[JohnDeere 0]

Well I'm sure Dan Satterfield is just up in arms over this. Now he will have to calm down and not freak out over the weather. Maybe this will force him to retire, please oh please let that happen.

"The storm is headed right towards you people in _______, TAKE COVER!! TAKE COVER NOW!! NOW!!! THIS IS A MEAN LOOKING STORM! GET UNDER A TABLE, OR ANYTHING. Oh, this could be bad.

Take over for me for a minute Skip, I am going out on the roof and look in that direction, I want to see if I can see a WALL CLOUD."

Every freaking five minutes.

[AUslug 1]

I love it when he gets all antsy about "possible circulation". STFU Dan and just tell us when the tornado touches down, now back to CSI.

[Streyeder 0]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XG79J18koWM

[Ranger12 46]

You guys do realize that a wall cloud can cause severe damage without having to touch down, which is when it is then called a tornado, don't you? A year ago we had a wall cloud come over us that dropped baseball sized hail and the winds were blowing hard enough to tear off shingles and siding. I was flipping through the storm coverage and Satterfield was the only guy to tell us people in the Flint area of Decatur to watch out.

As somebody that has been through a couple of tornadoes, Satterfield' excitement does not bother me the least. When they shut the NWS down in Huntsville a few years ago and we had to get our warnings at off Birmingham, which was generally slow as hell, Satterfield and Channel 19 was the only guy with the equipment to properly watch these storms and issue these warnings way before Birmingham NWS even thought about them. He was also one of the most vocal people in getting a NWS opened back up in Huntsville.

Also, you make fun of Satterfield, but he has been making "locale warnings" like this for a couple of years now, so again the NWS is catching up.

Sure, he gets all fired up, but I do too because if my experiences with tornadoes that scared the crap out of me. I would rather handle a rattlesnake then deal with another tornado. The freakin' warning sirens go off here about 3 minutes after Satterfield calls for the warning. He can get irritating at times, so I am not ignorant of that fact. But he is the only guy on TV in this area that is from a part of the country, Oklahoma, in which he has seen plenty of tornadoes, whereas all the other guys might have been lucky to see a couple in their lives. So, I trust him alot more then I do those other guys. I would rather have somebody go over the top like Satterfield does then act like nothing is going on then get hit.

Know, go ahead and call me a Satterfield bo-bo honker.

[SupperClub 0]

You are a Satterfield bobo honker.

[JohnDeere 0]

Ranger, I love to watch Satterfield when the weather gets nasty. He gets me fired up.

[Ranger12 46]

Speaking of weather, a few years ago, I was interviewing with Bob Baron's company for a position as his inventory manager. It was down between me and another guy, but they hired they other guy because he had CAD experience (still never figured out what that had to do with the job). Anyway, I go the grand tour of his place and got to see how they developed all that weather software that is used. Pretty neat stuff. They had radar images up all over that place, so the employees there never had to guess what the weather was going to be like.

For those of you not from around the North Alabama are, Bob Baron was a TV meteorologist for several years in Huntsville. He then started working with the weather service in developing weather radar software to go along with all the new doppler technology. He then developed that into a big business and now most of the radar software you see used by just about every TV station and most weather services across the country was developed by Baron Enterprises. He even sells and installs the doppler radars that goes along with the software he develops for those systems. When I was interviewing, he was showing me invoices from the Israeli government and TV stations in England. What surprises me is the fact that so far, no other company has stepped up to really compete with him in this area. Either everybody else does not realize how big of a business this stuff really is or radar software technology is so complicated that not many others have stepped up to the plate like Baron has.

[tgr4lfe 220]

You guys do realize that a wall cloud can cause severe damage without having to touch down, which is when it is then called a tornado, don't you? A year ago we had a wall cloud come over us that dropped baseball sized hail and the winds were blowing hard enough to tear off shingles and siding. I was flipping through the storm coverage and Satterfield was the only guy to tell us people in the Flint area of Decatur to watch out.

As somebody that has been through a couple of tornadoes, Satterfield' excitement does not bother me the least. When they shut the NWS down in Huntsville a few years ago and we had to get our warnings at off Birmingham, which was generally slow as hell, Satterfield and Channel 19 was the only guy with the equipment to properly watch these storms and issue these warnings way before Birmingham NWS even thought about them. He was also one of the most vocal people in getting a NWS opened back up in Huntsville.

Also, you make fun of Satterfield, but he has been making "locale warnings" like this for a couple of years now, so again the NWS is catching up.

Sure, he gets all fired up, but I do too because if my experiences with tornadoes that scared the crap out of me. I would rather handle a rattlesnake then deal with another tornado. The freakin' warning sirens go off here about 3 minutes after Satterfield calls for the warning. He can get irritating at times, so I am not ignorant of that fact. But he is the only guy on TV in this area that is from a part of the country, Oklahoma, in which he has seen plenty of tornadoes, whereas all the other guys might have been lucky to see a couple in their lives. So, I trust him alot more then I do those other guys. I would rather have somebody go over the top like Satterfield does then act like nothing is going on then get hit.

Know, go ahead and call me a Satterfield bo-bo honker.

That would be a supercell. Straight line winds can be just as damaging as tornadic winds. A tornado by definition is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground. Typically, tornadoes will develop in the rain free base of a supercell thunderstorm, thus the rain and then hail is technically "out in front" of the tornado. That is the time to be most concerned, when it is hailing. Check with your local Emergency Management office for Storm Spotter training classes. They are very very interesting. As an Emergency Planner for Lee County I have sat thru at least 5 of the classes.

The Birmingham NWS office along with many others, has actually been using the polygons for several years. It is just now being officially adopted. With the unpredicability of tornadoes it will not change how we activate the EAS for Lee County or how we issue the warning for the county. We will still sound the sirens for the whole county not a portion. Don't know about other counties.?

[Ranger12 46]

That would be a supercell. Straight line winds can be just as damaging as tornadic winds. A tornado by definition is a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground. Typically, tornadoes will develop in the rain free base of a supercell thunderstorm, thus the rain and then hail is technically "out in front" of the tornado. That is the time to be most concerned, when it is hailing. Check with your local Emergency Management office for Storm Spotter training classes. They are very very interesting. As an Emergency Planner for Lee County I have sat thru at least 5 of the classes.

The Birmingham NWS office along with many others, has actually been using the polygons for several years. It is just now being officially adopted. With the unpredicability of tornadoes it will not change how we activate the EAS for Lee County or how we issue the warning for the county. We will still sound the sirens for the whole county not a portion. Don't know about other counties.?

Yeah, I am a trained spotter. Had a scary experience in the Army and then again not long afterwards when I was umpiring a youth league baseball game. Decided I wanted to know what to look for when I am outside, especially when I was either coaching and umpiring baseball or fishing because that time of year is when supercells develop the quickest without much warning. I have the NWS Huntsville office and Morgan County EMS on my speed dial. The Huntsville area office is about to hold some more classes for anybody interested. Even if you are really not interested in becoming a spotter for your local EMS or NWS office, you can still learn alot of helpful stuff just for your own use if you are outdoors type person and you may not have weather info handily available.