Status Updates From Tornado Watch Number 211

A couple of sections in this book remind us that we need to sometimes listen to children. It could save your life.

"No region suffers as many tornadoes as the continental United States. Such frequency is unheard of anywhere else in the world. Average number per year: 700."

"On the ground, many of the citizens ... already had noticed the key preamble: the sultry and muggy air pulled in from the Gulf of Mexico."

"Most sinister is that tornadoes can come in families, one following another, striking different paths across cities, towns, and countryside."

"The wind speeds inside the funnel can rage at over three hundred
miles an hour. No direct measurements have ever been made. Any instrument yet designed would be obliterated by the winds it was trying to
measure."

"Over a fifty-year span, tornadoes have killed as many people as all the floods and hurricanes in the country combined. They burst out of hiding so quickly there is rarely time for an effective warning. They can stay on the ground from a few seconds to more than 3 hours. The swath of destruction can range from a few feet to over 2 miles in width. The murderous path can run from a few feet long to over 200 miles."

"At 4:25 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Weiss again slid his chair
over to the CSIS keyboard and typed out Tornado Watch Number
211..."

"The weathermen did not like to be alarmists. They also hated to fail to make a decision that might save many lives. There was a delicate balance between the two."

"Usually the severe storms started in western Ohio, and were easy to track as they crossed the Ohio border into Pennsylvania. There was plenty of lead time under normal conditions. On this day there was none."

"... the climatological fact that it was very rare for tornadoes to hit Ohio in its far eastern region. When they did, the central and western parts of the state nearly always got pummeled first."

"With the ability to locate exact points on the satellite imagery, the forecaster is provided with coordinates to locate any town in the country ... Like magic, the system also can display radar data, and the Kansas City forecaster can interrogate any of the sixty National Weather Service radars spread across the country."

"Essentially, the system can assimilate on one screen what previously had to be done in the forecaster's crowded mind. Equipment consists of a GOES satellite receiving antenna, four Harris/6 computers, the output from a 604 data circuit, and two auto dialers that provide time access to radar data. The system can produce pressure, temperature, and dew-point analyses to give clues about critical vertical air currents."

"The main set of hardware that improved tornado watch verification markedly for Kansas City was called the Centralized Storm Information System. With the National Weather Service's passion for acronyms, they dubbed it CSIS. Installed in 1982, it provided a new tool to make optimal
use of remote sensing information."

"Weiss added, 'For the United States, I'm still sticking to that area of eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and western New York, though. If it's going to happen, I think it's going to happen there.'"

"RISOP - Rapid Interval Scan Operation-to catch more frequent cloud
movement."

"And there remained another serious problem: public indifference and apathy as far as watches and warnings were concerned. Many were still confused about which was which - or even realized a tornado was the most devastating force in all of meterology."

"The surface map showed a high temperature and dew point-the latter being the measure of how much moisture there was in the air, the moisture that could rush violently upward to form giant thunderstorms. All the other ingredients pointed to a dangerous situation."

"Nearby was the imposing classical Greek structure in
memory of President William McKinley. It looked as if it had been sliced out of Washington and transplanted in Niles, the town of his birth. Some have commented that the memorial is considerably more impressive than his accomplishments."

"Much of the activity took place on 'the strip,' that
traffic-jammed four-lane sort of highway that all through America merges one town with another without a change in the nature or ambience, without a borderline to be discerned."

"[Tornado w]arnings are not issued except under two conditions. The first is when a report comes in that a twister has been sighted by a responsible spotter or observer on the ground... The second is when what is called a hook echo is observed on weather station radar."

"[Tornado w]arnings are not issued except under two conditions. The first is when a report comes in that a twister has been sighted by a responsible spotter or observer on the ground --"

"A tornado watch means simply that conditions are ripe for tornadoes in a given area..."