Thursday, March 20, 2008

Final Word From NWS

The National Weather Service says that NO tornadoes touched down on Tuesday night. Any damage that occurred was from gusty winds. I know many of you wondered, so I wanted to pass that along.

I can't believe that a "unnamed" TV station in Memphis compared Tuesday night to February 5th during their weather coverage! Some stations like to scare people into watching. We will never scare you into watching... The same station that made this comparison repeatedly said that a tornado was on the ground. We now know, that was not true. Until I get a reliable source, I will say "possible" tornado. I will say that the station was NOT our sister-station, WMC. Dave Brown and WMC handled the situation responsibly.

If you cry wolf too many times, people will quit watching and they quit taking shelter. This is why we went back to regular programming when the storms weakened.

Have a great night,
Ryan

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This info probably needs to be passed along to the "journalist" at the Blytheville paper!

Cloggingmymind said...

Ryan,

You and the rest of the team do a great job taking care of all of us in the viewing area during severe weather threats. I do appreciate that you guys don't sensationalize it, and therefore, do trust the station when it tells me to get in my
tornado safe spot. I can tell since you have come back, the way storms are covered are so much more professional and accurate. I appreciate you and the rest of the team so much. You are all there working to keep us safe, and don't think I've forgotten that your family is home by themselves. I lift up prayers for their safety when you are keeping the rest of us safe. Thanks for a great job, once again!

Anonymous said...

Would you stop broadcasting if The City of Joneboro and Craighead County were under a National Weather Service TORNADO WARNING. Not if you wanted to keep your job you wouldn't. Now maybe the weather was not as bad as on some other date. But you wouldn't know because you quit watching against the advice of the National Weather Service. Oh and as for your sister channel. Dave got it wrong to.

Anonymous said...

I still stand behind the comments that I made yesterday. Regular scheduled programming should not have proceeded until ALL the counties in the viewing area were out of danger. Mississippi County is obviously not as important as the counties to the west of Jonesboro, because they are the ones reported on!

Anonymous said...

Ryan, I think the time has come for you to start breaking in with Gust Front Warnings and RFD Alerts. You'll want to get the crawler and map set up for this, stat. I'd prefer to see fuchsia on the map for Gust Front Warning and a nice shade of periwinkle for the RFD alert, in case you're looking for that sort of input. You see, these cheery hues will add quite generously to the visual appeal of the coverage overall, perhaps even serving as a calming influence to those prone to spontaneous, irrational outbursts in the process. ... While you're at it, why don't you go ahead and post the hotline # for the newsroom so everyone can call in with their leafnado and pollen devil and cold-core scud cloud reports as well. As you know, those first two are common in the mid-afternoon hours, so I hope no one has become too attached to Dr. Phil. Although, putting up a Watch Box in a timely fashion should serve as ample preparation for preemption. Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, from now on I'd like to see wall-to-wall mammatus reporting as well. This should continue until which time the vast horizon is clear of these doom-whistling pock-marks of the stratosphere. I'm thinking there could even be a special See it, Snap it, Send it campaign to encourage all of Region-8 to join in, which would also lend credence to any event that may unfold. Can't you just see the ratings now?!

I hope that's not asking too much.

Anonymous said...

I was personally very thankful for that "unnamed" station in Memphis that stayed with Mississippi county. When there is no one else reporting for Mississippi county, we switch over to any other station where we can find out what is going on. Why is it that we in Mississippi county are left "out in the storm" after the weather has passed Jonesboro? I thought KAIT was supposed to represent all of Northeast Arkansas?