Monday, September 18, 2006

Disrupting Programs...

I am happy to report that we did not have many complaints about the Severe Weather Cut-in I had to do last night. Usually we get a few calls from people telling us to put their program back on, but last night we only had one guy call. We actually had people call and thank us!

I wonder why people have had a change of heart? Do you think it is because of the Maramduke disaster last April? Is it because it was for Craighead County? Was it because nobody was watching Extreme Home Makeover? What do you think?

Fortunately, we did not have any touchdowns. Some people did report a funnel cloud South of Highway 230. That is exactly where Storm Vision radar placed it too.

I was extremely pleased with how our equipment performed last night. Storm Vision radar "flagged" the storm for a possible tornado a few minutes before the warning was issued. The radar display system that we use is called ESP :LIVE from Weather Central. It was really put to the test on April 2 for both of the monster F3's. It performed well then, and it performed well last night.

Here is a little montage of the coverage from last night... The first clip is about an hour before the warning.... Click here.

Bring on the cool weather!!!

6 comments:

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I was born in Trumann and now live in Bay. I'm 42 and I remember the tornadoes of 1968 and 1973 very well. You'll never get any complaints from me about breaking into a stupid television show of any kind when people's lives may be on the line. People just don't have their priorities straight these days, and/or they've never been in or near a tornado or they'd have a different attitude.

Keep up the good work, Ryan. I for one appreciate what you do for us. :-)

Anonymous said...

Ryan,

Well, I for one just want to say that I appreciate what you do by doing the weather. If for any reason you have to break into a television show, by ALL means, do so. You sure can't take the television with you if you are killed in a tornado. I always keep an eye on the weather, and I depend on KAIT8 Storm team to keep me updated. You and the storm team are doing a great job and keep up the good work! Interupt anytime there is bad weather around.

Karen Horton
Caraway

Stacy said...

It was because it was Extreme Home Makeover :)

If it had been a football game, a soap opera, or American Idol the phones would be ringing off the hook!

LOL

Glad everyone is safe!

Anonymous said...

I am shocked that anyone would complain that you interrupted a tv show with a severe weather warning. I am very thankful that we are able to get up to date and accurate weather information when we need it!!

You are doing a wonderful job, keep up the good work!!

Just please don' interrupt Grey's Anatomy Thursday night!!!!LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm lucky and had the best of both worlds. Our cable system carries two ABC stations so I could watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and pop back to KAIT to check the weather alerts. :)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I agree the weather is much more important than any show out there. However I am keeping my fingers crossed for clear skies for the premiere of Grey's Anatomy. But if there is something bad going to happen anywhere that the viewers need to know about please feel and break my heart and interrupt our programming. I honestly can not believe that people call in and complain about you reporting bad weather. I moved from California and they broke into programming every time some drunken idiot decides to run from the cops. Now that can be a little frustating and the sad true things is every channel would break in with the high speed chase so you had no choice but to watch it.