Why Are You Bothering Us with Those Annoying Tornado Warnings?; Part 1

A taste of spring-like weather brought much-needed rain to the area December 10-11, but we also ended up with a handful of tornado warnings. Outside of reports of some trees down from some of these storms near Enoree, Ware Shoals, and Hodges, there were no other reports of significant damage, and no confirmation of any tornadoes touching down locally.

Meanwhile, in the weather office we received our usual round of “input” from some of you who were unhappy about programming being interrupted for these tornado warnings. Some comments included “well, they aren’t tornadoes anyway”, “you keep coming on to say the same things over and over”, and “these storms aren’t affecting our area”.

Which leads me to this week’s blogs, in multi-installment format. In this part: Why do we do what we do when severe weather (in particular, tornado warnings) threatens?

Every time a tornado warning is issued in our viewing area, it is station policy to get on the air with details as soon as possible. Whenever a tornado warning is issued it represents a potentially life-threatening situation, particularly for those who are not properly prepared. Breaking into programming is the most direct way to communicate that threat. We have to treat each warning seriously, although we will emphasize some situations more than we do others…after all, not all storms are the same.

We are not afforded the opportunity to wait until we get to a “convenient” moment in programming. Any extra delay raises the chance that someone will not get the warning in time.

And sometimes we have to keep cutting in. Storms move and undergo changes constantly. Who is under the gun may change over a ten to fifteen minute period. The strength of the storm changes too…and we may have to adjust. The more dangerous the situation, the longer we’ll stay on.

The size of our viewing area also guarantees that you are likely to see cut-ins for weather that may not directly affect you at the moment. For example, people living in Greenville or Spartanburg will see warnings for Greenwood and Abbeville, and vice versa. Please bear with us…we hope that those who are in the path of a storm appreciate our coverage, and we will try to ensure that we will give the same attention to storms that may affect you in the future.

Hopefully, this provides a little insight into why things happen on our end. The next topic in this series: why tornado warnings often do not have tornadoes associated with them…and why they still matter.