Tuesday, May 8, 2007

A Team Effort

I'm still thinking about the weekend of severe weather and how many people were affected by the several rounds of storms. We have received several compliments on our weather coverage and we appreciate the kind words, but there is a special group of people that contribute to our successful weather coverage and we owe them credit too. They are the storm spotters and chasers that follow these storms across Kansas. We have a great storm chasing crew that go out almost every time we have severe weather. There are too many to mention by name, but their reports make all the difference in the world. When we can go on the air and say "trained spotters have reported a tornado on the ground", it makes people take the warning more seriously than if it is just indicated by radar. I can't thank our chasers and spotters enough for the hard work they do for our weather team.

On another note, I wanted to post this radar image from the Dodge City National Weather Service radar. It is the velocity mode that we often show on tv, where the reds and greens match up, indicating where the storm is rotating (remember green is wind blowing toward the radar and red is away). This was about 5 minutes before the tornado hit Greensburg. Scientists that have studied tornadoes for years say they have never seen anything quite like it before.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI Ross! You and everyone at Channel 12 did an excellent job of covering the tornado-before, during and after.

I *KNOW* you saved many lives.

THANKS & Keep up the great work!

Janice

Anonymous said...

I live so rural that during recent storms, I relied on radio, scanner and Ch. 12. You folks did not get panicked like another Ch. did; watching helped me to plan to stay home, run quantity water and watch. One confusing thing was the maps you use; one referred to a 12 mile out rural address as being "in Hutchinson", but we knew what you meant. Thanks for doing your job so we "ruralies" can rely on you. I watched till 230 when Storm moving NNE was west of me enough that I felt safe enough to go to sleep. As one weathercaster said, in effect, "...the people watching who complain that the storm wasn't near them, but their program was interrupted...should remember that when the storm IS on you, we'll be THERE with live radar too." Thanks again for the Peace.

distimpson said...

Hi Ross, thanks for the weather coverage, I think you guys did save a lot of lives.

Could you please post an image of the various tornado paths on 5/4 with their strengths? Saw it on your news coverage.

Also, people are discussing the possibility of a museum in Greensburg to document and preserve the affects of the EF5-would pictures and video from Ch. 12 be available for this effort?

Thank you and best wishes,
Don Stimpson
RR.2 Box 58A
Haviland, KS 67059

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