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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,969 posts, read 25,568,746 times
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I'm a big weather geek and watch a lot of Youtube videos of outbreaks and weather discussions. I listen to a lot of speeches by Birmingham AL meteorologist James Spann, who is widely considered one of the best in the business.
In a recent speech he dropped a bombshell: the radar he and other stations used was off by a few miles and caused him to give incorrect locations that were in the path. I went and compared the actual path and then his coverage of the Tuscaloosa tornado and it was off by a bunch. In his coverage he says several times "It will stay down Skyland Blvd" when that area was safe by two miles.
Spann was afraid this misinformation killed someone, and then the book by the Alabama football player came out - player and his gf went aloft in the tornado. In the book the gf said " it should miss us, tv guy says it will stay along Skyland Blvd". She died in the storm. 52 other Tuscaloosa residents died.
Spann said he will use 2 radar sources from now on in such scenarios and will refrain from narrowing down too much on areas in the path. I can't believe this could be an issue in modern times. It shows we still have a long way to go
Well, I live in Birmingham and have heard James Spann a lot. My reaction to that is essentially one of 'big deal.'
Look, I'm not saying that radar shouldn't be continually improved. But the distance between Skyland Boulevard and the actual path of the Tuscaloosa tornado was roughly two miles. Anyone in the area with a brain the size of a peanut would have been in their basement anyway wearing a bicycle helmet, for the margin of error in predicting the path of a tornado is pretty sizable.
What's more, anyone who had a television on during the broadcast would have have a much clearer idea of what was going on, as well as the exact location of the the monster. It was just crazy how many people were standing outside with their video cameras watching the thing bear down on them.
I'm a big weather geek and watch a lot of Youtube videos of outbreaks and weather discussions. I listen to a lot of speeches by Birmingham AL meteorologist James Spann, who is widely considered one of the best in the business.
In a recent speech he dropped a bombshell: the radar he and other stations used was off by a few miles and caused him to give incorrect locations that were in the path. I went and compared the actual path and then his coverage of the Tuscaloosa tornado and it was off by a bunch. In his coverage he says several times "It will stay down Skyland Blvd" when that area was safe by two miles.
Spann was afraid this misinformation killed someone, and then the book by the Alabama football player came out - player and his gf went aloft in the tornado. In the book the gf said " it should miss us, tv guy says it will stay along Skyland Blvd". She died in the storm. 52 other Tuscaloosa residents died.
Spann said he will use 2 radar sources from now on in such scenarios and will refrain from narrowing down too much on areas in the path. I can't believe this could be an issue in modern times. It shows we still have a long way to go
He called out Skyland Boulevard but he also on numerous occasions told everyone in the city limits of Tuscaloosa to be in a safe place. Northport too, until the tornado was right on the city and it became obvious it would be a Tuscaloosa problem and not a Northport problem.
I do agree though that they were being a little too specific.
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