treetowntenor

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 12:56 p.m.

It's interesting to see how different people view and respond to tornado warnings. Here's what we did. When the warning was issued, the family talked about when they should head downstairs. (I'm a Skywarn spotter, and I choose to stay upstairs until the last possible safe moment. I'm not required to make that choice; it's just what I want to do.) Since the storm was tracking along US-12, and appeared to be passing south of town, they decided to stay upstairs while I followed things. I was watching to the south, not expecting to see much, when a slightly-rotating wall cloud came into view, heading right for us. After a few of moments of disbelief, I realized the storm had taken a hard left at Saline. I called to my wife and son, who scooted downstairs with the dogs, while I made a couple of reports on the Skywarn network. I think we cut it a little close; if it had been heading for us all along, they would have gone downstairs (more slowly) about 5 or 10 minutes earlier. After everything had passed to the north, up they came, about 15 minutes before the warning expired.

daytona084

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 8:38 a.m.

You can listen to Skywarn on any "Police Scanner" @ 145.15. You will be listening to the actual spotters. In my opinion this is the best source of information. It makes no sense to take cover in the basement when the storm in question hasn't even entered the county.

lumberg48108

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 7:50 a.m.

there was a time when bad weather meant you tune to 1600 AM cause you knew it was local - and the Detroit stations were not focused on our area I agree with others - those days are gone and 1600 is no longer a viable news delivery system

bedrog

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 7:49 a.m.

a better indicator of really bad impending storms than often wolf-crying tv spots etc is one of our cats...who spent some time in the woods before he was recued... in advance of all the sirens/tornado alerts on tv.,and often in a calm before the bad stuff hit, he heads for our interior utility room and hides. when he comes out, the storm has also invarably been given an all-clear by the media.

KJMClark

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 7:43 a.m.

What happened to tornado watches? I can understand the large number of tornado warnings this year; we've had more than the usual number of tornadoes and bad thunderstorms this spring. Also, the radar technology is getting better every year to detect these storms. But I don't recall a single tornado watch this season. We seem to go from severe thunderstorm watch straight to tornado warning every time. And it's funny that the same technology that lets the weather service spot vortices more easily with radar lets the rest of us check the weather radar to see if we should head for the basement. For each of the warnings we've had this season, I check the radar at Weather Underground to see which storm had the vortex and where that storm was heading. For the storm system a week or so ago, I checked the radar and saw that there were a number of vortices popping up, but they were all tracking south of us. So, no trip to the basement.

jcj

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 7:37 a.m.

I beg to differ with those saying that the criteria for a warning has not changed. Before the advancement of Doppler radar they could not detect the rotation in a cloud. Now that they can they will issue warnings based on the radar. So that that in and of itself is a change in the criteria for how and when they issue warnings. Having said that if they wait until someone spots a funnel cloud it will be to late for those in the immediate area.

GRANDPABOB

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 7:32 a.m.

We live in an area where there are no sirens. In the years past the television stations were always behind, the warning would come after the storm was past which didn't do much good. I would rather be mistakenly warned ahead of time, so there is time to prepare/watch for it.

robyn

Tue, Jun 29, 2010 : 7:11 a.m.

@ Ed: I listen to SkyWarn too. One of the things I like about it is that you get reports from specific areas as the storm moves along. Much easier to pinpoint how close or how far away I am from the worst/most damaging parts of the storm.

LGChelsea

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 9:10 p.m.

WUOM is the only station I listen to. It was on throughout the bad weather systems and programming was interrupted multiple times to announce the location of the storms and where they would be at 5 minute increments. I rely on these announcements and this station has been very accurate and helpful.

Thom in Ann Arbor

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 8:39 p.m.

As others have noted above, there are plenty of us around who grew up in Michigan in the pre-technology days: -- 50's 60's 70's. "Tornado Warning" used to mean someone has seen a tornado right now and you better run for cover (criterion 3, above). "Tornado Watch" used to mean that conditions were right for the formation of tornadoes (criteria 1 and 2 above, which are now sufficient for the issuance of a warning, per the article). It seems the new "Warning" now has the meaning that the old "Watch" used to have -- conditions are right for the formation of tornadoes. It seems that watches are issued now when we're just having plain old Michigan summers -- hot, humid, with thunderstorms in the afternoon. I hope it won't take a tragedy caused by people becoming complacent about over-hyped warnings to inspire the weather services to rethink their criteria.

Ann English

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 7:36 p.m.

I looked up "code black" and found that it refers to taking cover from extreme weather, and hospital patients usually are referred to, not shoppers.

Olive

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 7:34 p.m.

Just after we left Top of the Park last Wednesday we heard the tornado siren and immediately turned WEMU on. The announcer was cutting into the programming every five minutes or so with weather updates until the warning expired. There was nothing on WUOM or any of the commercial stations in the area. Same thing during the tornado warning on a Saturday night at the beginning of the month. Updates on WEMU every 5-10 minutes until warning expired and nothing on WUOM or the commercial stations. I don't know what stations those of you who said WEMU didn't give weather info were actually listening to.

mrk

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 7:29 p.m.

I would expect that the "code black" was something the store staff came up with on their own... although you never know. But I've worked in retail stores where we had "codes" for all sorts of things (meaning everything from "suspected shoplifter" to "I need change"). All of the storm systems that we were warned about did end up producing tornadoes -- maybe not right here in Ann Arbor, but it could have been! It was the same storm system! I have lived in Michigan my whole life and I would say, just a guess, maybe 25-50% of the "tornado warnings" I heard throughout my childhood and adult life actually ended up being confirmed tornadoes that touched down. These three storms... it was 100%. That's enough, to me, to convince me to take cover. I was super annoyed to have to run downstairs the night before I was to run my first 10K in the Dexter-Ann Arbor run... it was tempting to stay in bed. But ultimately I would rather be safe than get a good night's sleep. I believe this has been a more active year. That's all there is to it.

Chris Goosman

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 7:27 p.m.

...kinds of reports...sorry about the typo.

Chris Goosman

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 6:36 p.m.

On the Skywarn spotter network there is no "code black". We have condition green, yellow and red conditions which while they have some correlation to the weather conditions have more to do with how the net control operator chooses to handle the kids of reports they would like to receive.

Ann English

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 5:56 p.m.

I see that Ed used the terminology "condition green" and "condition yellow", so he's probably familiar with "code black". I had almost arrived at the Ypsilanti Township store I was driving to when I heard the tornado siren start blaring, but didn't know what it meant. It didn't stop until I was almost inside the store and another shopper told me it was indeed a tornado siren. I had not yet reached the aisle where I intended to load what I came to buy when the loudspeaker announced a tornado warning; we could either leave or go to the back of the store with the employees; no one could proceed to buy anything until the cashiers were ordered back to work. The announcer used the term "code black"; it sounds like the most urgent kind of signal. So NWS reports get updated every 15 minutes? Maybe that is why our wait in the back of the store was only 15 minutes at the most.

greenstriper

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 5:39 p.m.

I agree with L that local radio has been worse than useless during the recent evening tornado warnings. I just won't bother with it any more.

Macabre Sunset

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 4:56 p.m.

I thought channel 7 did a terrible job. Their graphics were illegible, they used a huge border over the World Cup screen. And their weather bunny had no idea how to use his toys. I ended up being more confused than if they had just run with a simple scroll, like they used to do. Then channel 7 went blank for about 45 minutes. Though that could have been my cable company. I ended up watching a lot of the match online. Which means no warnings on the television. That's the price they pay when they overdo it - people stop watching. I can agree with the argument that better technology means more tornado warnings. Which means more false positives. Which again will lead to less people taking heed. The WXYZ weather bunny was all over the place with his non-sensical patter and graphics. At one point, he had both South Lyon and Flat Rock obliterated by raging tornadoes. Then a minute later, he was yapping about an all-clear in 20 minutes, when apparently the only actual touchdown was a little bit later than that. Maybe WXYZ would be better served with just a scroll saying, "you might need to take cover if you're in these areas - tune into the Weather Channel if you value your life." Clearly they don't have the talent to staff their own weather department.

Jeff S

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 4:52 p.m.

I would vote but there is no "sit on the front porch and watch" option!

Rod Johnson

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 3:39 p.m.

There was definitely a lot of vorticity in those clouds yesterday. There was no telling whether some of it was going to develop into a funnel cloud or not, but it was pretty forbidding looking. People should realize that cloud formations are only the visible part of weather phenomena--there can be a lot of crazy stuff going on in clear air that you can't see but radar can.

Chris

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 3:26 p.m.

Paul, the NWS isn't putting out warnings any differently so this "cry wolf" mentality simply isn't accurate - the weather has simply been "busier" and the result has been more warnings. Tornadoes are not predictable, so while sirens in Ypsi Twp may have felt like overkill for a storm in Manchester, the goal is to inform and allow people to prepare for severe weather, not wonder if the alerts are somehow interfering with other plans people have. I would rather have 45 minutes heads up about threatening weather instead of just 15 minutes. Folks can blame themselves for ignoring warnings and the weather once they have the information. As an aside, I'm glad to know I'm not the sole F1 fan in the area!

RobRoy

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 3:22 p.m.

@Cheri I dont watch Fox2 but I completely understand the frustration. I think people were mistaking the requests for pictures as sensationalism. Now Im not going to defend that if that was indeed the case, but when bad weather develops so rapidly, the forecasters on air simply arent capable of monitoring all the country emergency management reports from trained spotters. Here in Washtenaw, a lot of rotation was seen but thankfully nothing ever developed. A lot of the metereologists rely on folks on the ground to make good calls but they arent infallible. Ive been in a few hurricanes and tornadoes..they are experiences I dont wish on anyone.

Cheri

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 3:08 p.m.

@RobRoy, I agree that life is more important than any sporting event. However, did you watch the FOX2 coverage of this storm? It really was just people playing with their fancy weather toys. They weren't even actually reporting on the storms most of the time. The information they provided could have been covered by putting up a map and listing the estimated arrival times of the storms on a scroll at the bottom of the screen (which is what most stations do.) Instead, they cut away from an event they can't replay and showed the weather guy playing with his fancy new toy (and not very well, I might add.) I actually recorded the F1 race so I could watch it when I got home from traveling. (I was stuck out east and delayed by these same storms. I didn't mind the delay because I'd rather be safe than dead.) The whole race instead of being shown in HD was shown in a low definition feed with a map in the corner until they broke away from the end of the race. They could have scrolled on the bottom during their coverage who won the race, but they didn't.

rjwadd

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 3:05 p.m.

Nice story Amalie. I can understand the concern of the public in regard to taking warnings seriously with so many recent events; however, this has been an unusually active severe weather season. The conditions layed out by the NWS were met prior to issuing all of the tornado warnings issued in the past month. Not all storms prompting a tornado warning will actually produce a tornado, but because it's impossible to predict exactly when/where/if a storm with strong rotation will touch down, it's better to be safe than sorry. Having lived in the Ann Arbor area for the past three years, I can only recall two events prior to this summer that have prompted the sirens to be sounded. It is, for all intensive purposes, a rare event. For this year, chalk it up to an unusually active weather pattern. @Paul: I think more people should obtain their information from the National Weather Service, as these are the actual people that issue the warnings. The Detroit office's general website is http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx and they have a severe weather website at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/svr.php In regards to more carefully selected warning areas, the NWS issues what are called "Storm-Based Warnings". If you look on the NWS radar, these appear as polygons highlighting a more carefully predicted storm track as opposed to all of Washtenaw County, for example. It should be noted that radio/television interruptions of the Emergency Broadcast System come up anytime a location within the county is under a warning. During both the June 5-6 and June 23 events, there were actually additional tornado warnings issued for Southern Washtenaw County for which the sirens in Ann Arbor were never sounded. The likely reason for this, is that the Emergency Management office looked at the Storm-Based Warning from the NWS and determined the Ann Arbor city proper was not in immediate danger. So, for what it's worth today's technology is doing the job, and it's my hope that any time those sirens are sounded, people will utilize their resources and heed the warnings. I hope the additional information and resources are useful.

RobRoy

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 2:52 p.m.

I said this yesterday but public safety trumps even the World Cup. People can choose to ignore the warnings, however, they do so at their own peril. Im sure the same folks screaming about all the warnings would be the first to scream if they didnt sound the sirens and a tornado did touch down. The truth is, that for all the complaining, Id rather be informed and inundated with too much information, than too little. The conditions were ripe for tornadic activity. The storms got dangerous and intensified very rapidly over Ann Arbor. For the people who dont own televisions and for the people who were outside, the sirens are a great warning for them as well. Dont be so selfish about your tv programming folks. You can always catch reruns, but you cant get your life back.

Themadcatter

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 2:45 p.m.

In the past one would be advised to take a battery operated radio with them into shelter. I have done this twice now and found it is useless. I would scan station after station trying to find one that would give up-to-date information (or ANY information for that matter). I don't listen to the radio in general so I don't know station numbers but I try to aim for EMU as it seems to be somewhat reliable and generally has decent programming. Speaking of the first time I took cover, I think I found the EMU station but I dont know for sure as in the 5 minutes I listened it never left their regular programming. When I finally found a station whose host read a report, she said to stay tuned for further updates. I stayed tuned for a half hour and nothing more was reported. The next time I took cover I never found a station giving a report at all. As its not pleasant tuning in to most of the stations out there today I couldnt stick it out to see if one would eventually report something. Sooo many stations air sheer garbage and noise and their hosts are loud and obnoxious and seem to like to hear their own voices. Then there are all the even more obnoxious and loud commercials. So...Until I buy a radio with a weather channel, I will no longer bother turning to the radio for information. As far as other information avenues, youre supposed to unplug your computer and TV (and appliances) in the event of a storm, and I don't have a fancy cell phone - so how is one supposed to remain informed of the status of storms, especially if the power goes out. There's no "all-clear" siren to let us know it's safe to emerge from our safety zone. Just wondering what other's do in similar situation.

Paul the Malcontent

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 2:33 p.m.

In some ways I feel that we are getting TOO much detailed information on these storms. As a child growing up (70s & 80s), if Washtenaw County was under a tornado warning, my family went to the basement until it expired, no if, ands, or buts; part of the reason was understanding that an ACTUAL TORNADO had been spotted. TV & radio activated the "Emergency Alert System" and the local TV stations (2,4,7,20,&50) ran a crawl with alert tones and occasionally might have interrupted their programming with updates; if you wanted more details & continuing coverage, you listened to WAAM, WJR, or WWJ on the radio. Now as an adult I watch the coverage upstairs and might seek shelter in the basement at the last possible moment if I feel at risk; the intensified coverage has actually led to riskier behavior. And don't get me started on the television stations encouraging viewers to send in their pictures and videos of the storms! As hepcat noted, the National Weather Service runs the risk of becoming the boy who cried wolf, and the overkill in media coverage compounds this effect (they do this in winter with "death storm" coverage of upcoming heavy snowfall too). However, it should be noted that the three most recent tornado warnings have been justified, as there were tornadoes reported with each of the recent storms, either in Washtenaw County or very nearby. With the technology available though, they should narrow the coverage of these warnings to smaller areas. Yesterday, Ypsilanti Township's siren near Harris and Share went off at the same time the warning was issued for radar echoes near Manchester, but the severe weather didn't reach my area (& wasn't expected to) until approximately 45 minutes later; some lead time to get prepared and seek shelter is fine, but too much also leads to people ignoring the warnings.

Paul the Malcontent

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 1:55 p.m.

@Peter Nelson: Exactly. I hope you contacted Fox 2 to express your displeasure. I'm all for breaking in to announce the warning and show where the storms are tracking, but the 2+ hours of continual "playing with their cool weather toys" was overkill to me, especially in light of the fact they were preempting a sporting event that they don't have broadcast rights for reairing. Channel 7 did much better at being less intrusive; they were airing a show around 1:20pm when I flipped over with the standard crawl and graphic indicating the warnings, and later had a split-screen during the World Cup game.

81wolverine

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 1:06 p.m.

Amazing videos of the tornado(es). In this area, they don't seem to last very long (fortunately) before heading back into the clouds. Down south further, they can be horrendous - going on for miles and miles destroying entire communities. One thing needs clarifying in this story. Freitag's comment: "The life cycle of a thunderstorm is usually about 20 to 30 minutes." is very misleading. What he meant I'm pretty sure is that a thunderstorm in ONE SPOT lasts about 20-30 minutes. Obviously, a thunderstorm system can travel for several hundred miles going across the state. Hopefully, we're done with these nasty storms for a while. Now the weather story is the beautiful weather coming our way for 4th of July!

Chris

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 1:02 p.m.

We also have more ways to find out about storms - this site, television and the myriad of social networking tools many people use, so the flood of information is probably much greater. The National Weather Service has used radar data to decide on going with a tornado warning for quite some time now - but on top of that we have the television stations showing us all manner of charts and updates in near real-time, so we can get a better sense of being in or out of danger and developing a false sense of "why do I need to care?"

justwondering

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:58 p.m.

Hepcat brings up an issue. That's the traditional justification for a siren. However, no one's going to see a tornado at night, and frequently you can't see them during the storm. However, if the NWS is getting radar data indicating that a tornado is there, or probably there, then I want them to activate the sirens. I still go in the basement when they sound. Many of my neighbors don't.

Spencer Thomas

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:54 p.m.

There seems to have been a tornado that touched down (maybe twice) south of Belleville in Wayne county, that's not reported in your story.. The National Weather Service storm report page reports "TOUCHDOWN REPORT AT KARR AND JUDD RD." and "ROOF DAMAGE, POWER LINES DOWN, STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AT WILLOW AND WALTZ RD." A photo of this was tweeted yesterday (and retweeted by Ed Vielmetti): http://tweetphoto.com/29519718 Also, it would be nice to have the locations at which the two videos were taken identified in a caption. (Maybe they are identified in the audio, but I'm at work without headphones, so have to play it muted.)

justwondering

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:51 p.m.

This is a nice report, Amalie. I would like to "second" that request from seldon. Clearly, there have been many more warning sirens this season than in years past. I've heard some people say that the criteria have changed as to whether or not to activate the sirens. I've heard others say that the technology is getting better and, as you pointed out in your article, this results in more information which may lead to more warnings (rather than just visual sightings). It may be due to a more active storm season this year combined with better technology.

hepcat

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:51 p.m.

It used to be that a " tornado warning " meant that a funnel cloud was spotted. Now it's just a hyped-up tornado watch. If the weather bureau continues to cry wolf the sirens and alerts will be ignored.

seldon

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:42 p.m.

Could we get a story on how the criteria have changed? (Or if you've already done this and I've missed it, could you link your tornado coverage?) I don't remember EVER having so many tornado warnings in a single summer as we've had in the past two weeks, and I'm not clear on whether it's unusual weather patterns or a change in how they decide to issue the full warning.

Peter Nelson

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:23 p.m.

I'm not sure what Fox 2's motives were in presenting the tornado warning coverage on Sunday afternoon for several hours. They've definitely lost me as a viewer after they cut away from the last 40 minutes of the F1 Race to show us weather maps. A simple "side by side" video or even a "ticker bar" at the bottom of the screen would have sufficed (like ABC 7 did during the world cup later that afternoon). I can understand interrupting a program to warn everybody to go into their basements - and then breaking in again if a tornado was actually spotted - but why preempt programming for hours just to look at a weather system move through the area?

auntiemmmm

Mon, Jun 28, 2010 : 12:05 p.m.

I monitor the situation by using the weather link on AnnArbor.com. The radar with the storm motion and track is very useful. It shows you the strength of the storms and precisely where the storms are headed. I also listen to and watch channel 2 in Detroit. Over the past few weeks of storms, they have been most informative.