Post by jmfauver on Apr 28, 2014 6:12:42 GMT -5
Lately I read an opinion piece from one of my most highly respected severe weather mets. He was railing against comparing one storm outbreak from a few years ago to any eminent outbreak now or in the future. His point is very valid that no two outbreaks are the same and that April 2011 cannot be compared to this current system sweeping the mid section of the nation. Where I diverge from his opinion is where he calls using a comparison of outbreaks drama, attention seeking, weather hype by other stations or meteorologists and amateurs in general.
Here's why; The general public, even some professional meteorologists become lax in their expectation of weather conditions and reporting. The general public particularly will not heed warnings unless there is an associative graphic they can visually use for their brain to tell them,"Hey!!! This is going to be bad!!!". Unless the risk is taken to get their attention in a manner that reminds them of another period in history that was equally as bad then most will relegate their attention and efforts to their day to day responsibilities and not give much weight to what could be a potentially deadly weather situation for them.
This particular Met. was extremely accurate when it made the comment that "this storm outbreak and any other one WILL be somebodies April 2011, somewhere", but then he went on to say that you just can't use comparisons from past outbreaks to compare what may be coming down the pipe for tomorrow. The mere fact that only about 10% of all households in the nation actually own a weather radio is a testimony to the dependency on direct information by the general public. There are a myriad of reasons folks don't own a weather radio, from financial to the annoyance factor, but the fact remains they do save lives.
We have become a lazy culture that find it more convenient to play the blame game when someone doesn't get pertinent information relative to our survival to us in a timely manner, regardless of where we are and what we are doing. The concept of being self sufficient, self reliant and pro-active in protecting our well being is a practice long lost in the history books in this country. I suppose owning a weather radio falls under one of those categories and would relieve us of our ability to blame someone else for a disaster if we actually owned one.
SO, it is back to hype, drama, over reporting etc. etc. etc. For me personally? I care enough about even the laziest of individuals who absolutely refuse to go out and buy a weather radio and prefer instead to use comparative graphics from the past, even if they may be a bit exaggerated to the impending event. Guilty as charged, but my ponderings at present are; did the 17 people in Oklahoma and Arkansas that died in last nights tornadoes wish they had spent more time listening to suppressed weather information right before they died? This number is surely to climb. Will it reach the 337 number of folks that died in the 2011 outbreak? I doubt it, but if that is the baseline required for comparison of events, then who is the one using hype and drama now?
Every life counts, who cares what it takes to get the word out that everyone needs to pay attention to what is coming.
Just my .04 worth (.02 adjust for inflation)
Here's why; The general public, even some professional meteorologists become lax in their expectation of weather conditions and reporting. The general public particularly will not heed warnings unless there is an associative graphic they can visually use for their brain to tell them,"Hey!!! This is going to be bad!!!". Unless the risk is taken to get their attention in a manner that reminds them of another period in history that was equally as bad then most will relegate their attention and efforts to their day to day responsibilities and not give much weight to what could be a potentially deadly weather situation for them.
This particular Met. was extremely accurate when it made the comment that "this storm outbreak and any other one WILL be somebodies April 2011, somewhere", but then he went on to say that you just can't use comparisons from past outbreaks to compare what may be coming down the pipe for tomorrow. The mere fact that only about 10% of all households in the nation actually own a weather radio is a testimony to the dependency on direct information by the general public. There are a myriad of reasons folks don't own a weather radio, from financial to the annoyance factor, but the fact remains they do save lives.
We have become a lazy culture that find it more convenient to play the blame game when someone doesn't get pertinent information relative to our survival to us in a timely manner, regardless of where we are and what we are doing. The concept of being self sufficient, self reliant and pro-active in protecting our well being is a practice long lost in the history books in this country. I suppose owning a weather radio falls under one of those categories and would relieve us of our ability to blame someone else for a disaster if we actually owned one.
SO, it is back to hype, drama, over reporting etc. etc. etc. For me personally? I care enough about even the laziest of individuals who absolutely refuse to go out and buy a weather radio and prefer instead to use comparative graphics from the past, even if they may be a bit exaggerated to the impending event. Guilty as charged, but my ponderings at present are; did the 17 people in Oklahoma and Arkansas that died in last nights tornadoes wish they had spent more time listening to suppressed weather information right before they died? This number is surely to climb. Will it reach the 337 number of folks that died in the 2011 outbreak? I doubt it, but if that is the baseline required for comparison of events, then who is the one using hype and drama now?
Every life counts, who cares what it takes to get the word out that everyone needs to pay attention to what is coming.
Just my .04 worth (.02 adjust for inflation)
