How Tornado Emergencies Work

Today we look at tornado emergencies, why they are issued, their history, and differentiate watches, warnings, and emergencies.

How Tornado Emergencies Work

[Nurichiri]

One of the reasons tornado emergencies exist is because of an EF5 tornado that touched down in August of 1990 in Plainfield, IL. The warning wasn't even issued until it was too late. Twenty-nine people died and 353 were injured.

[hunterporth]

The reason a tornado emergency was issued for greensburg was the fact the tornado and the signature and velocities on radar was wider than the town itself

[tempestmotorsportsofficial]

We chased on the 15th! The whole ordeal was, there was a clear wall cloud but it was hard to tell if there was a tornado due to rough terrain and dense tree coverage. We witnessed power flashes inside of walnut ridge, and got slammed by RFD winds just south but it was incredibly difficult to make or confirm a report on that night. Unfortunate situations for all spotters involved, and all weather stations involved. Really difficult night the 15th was.

[michael-gsly]

i was in the EF 5 tornado in norman, probably the scariest moment in my life knowing that 600 kids were crammed in multiple little rooms and hearing everybody crying, the wind picking up, i believe it went right over our school, broke half the elementary, unfortunately it’s something i could never forget

[AtTheCrossingProductions]

Very surprised to learn that Joplin did not receive an Emergency label, I never really thought about that. Just shows how quickly the storm formed, caused immense destruction, and dissipated. Hope you do a full breakdown on that specific event, it definitely has some unique aspects that are video worthy!

[bobbyrut]

As a person tasked with reporting the weather as it happens this channel is incredibly well done. Keep it up.

[Eris]

Ive always explained the watch v warnings as: "Watch out" or be watchful for a Tornado when there's a watch declaration. When there is a warning, you are being warned of the existence of a Tornado. As a Midwesterner, it's quite important to know the difference.

[Levim]

When a tornado happened near my school I wanted to find out moore about tornados and ended up finding your channel. I've loved you're videos keep up the great work.

[TwoMan.]

Found your channel about 2 weeks ago, man you make some really amazing content! Please keep it up, you're growing so quickly

[rescueaviationfilms]

I live in Mountain View, Arkansas and was here when that EF4 tornado came through. Most of the town including myself and family were taking shelter at the school safe room, which is just a rebar anchored cinder block walled room. I was young at the time but I can still remember the freight train like roar as the tornado missed the shelter by less than a quarter mile to the east. Our town got pretty lucky considering it hit the Far East side and didn’t directly strike the town center. However it did destroy a lot of homes, a Chevrolet dealership, one of our fire departments, and did considerable damage to our towns only hospital. I’ll never forget it.

[railfanmaximstill]

Jame Spann is a legit legend. When he says a Tornado is on the ground you take him seriously.

[harrisonmanuel]

I live in cabot arkansas which is just north of where that tornado emergency was. I drove down to our local bowling alley which was reportedly destroyed once the “tornado” passed and there was no damage. We have had problems with false Tornado reporting here in arkansas. There where reports that the tornado was over a mile wide and it was destroying anything it went over. It’s sad that people are false reporting tornado’s but, thank god no one was hurt or killed.

[daemon]

We lost a family friend in the Joplin tornado. He'd made sure his wife wasn't crushed. They found her the first day, and she made a full recovery. They weren't able to find his body until the next day. He was crushed beneath their car and the gas station cover they'd taken shelter under. Hearing you talk about the tornados in Arkansas always catches me off guard. I'm from Northwest Arkansas originally, so I grew up hearing about or occasionally seeing these storms. I've never been unlucky enough to be caught in a tornado, but it's a real fear. Particularly after the awful one that happened in Rogers this year.

[mrjayjay]

Never been in an emergency, but been in several warnings. Both are scary, though!

[tehcyde]

Boy, that makes me feel old. When the April 27 outbreak hit the south, I was a couple months away from celebrating my 30th birthday. I was back home and watched Spann's broadcast live with my mom.

[waxwinged_hound]

There were several huge wedge tornadoes several days ago (if you're reading this in the far future, hi from April 2024), and there were several PDS and Tornado Emergency warnings mainly in Iowa and Nebraska iirc. And even though at least 40 or 50 houses were completely leveled, as far as I'm aware there were no fatalities (there might have been a few eventually reported (though I desperately hope not) but even then it wasn't a mass-casualty situation like it would have been without those warnings).

I mostly credit the PDS and Tornado Emergency warnings for people getting to shelter in time, because even those who sought shelter due to someone reaching out to them personally were probably indirectly warned by the weather service, as the people who warned them were almost certainly aware due to seeing the warnings themselves.

I know that if I'd known anyone in those areas I would have reached out to them to make sure they were taking shelter, because I was definitely paying attention to the weather over there even though I live in a state that hardly ever gets tornadoes. I was watching the Ryan Hall stream which showed all the warnings and stuff in real time. The footage those storm chasers got was incredible, beautiful, and terrifying all at once.

[Dank_Drew]

Ive witnessed a ef4 tornado in Michigan a few years back and it was literally in a corn field across the street from my grandparents house.

[jand]

I don't normally comment on videos, but this content is put together so well, amazing job. I think a really interesting idea could be covering stories of rogue tornadoes or tornado warnings in places that rarely or never see them? I'm not sure how many cases there are out there, but an interesting idea nonetheless.

[CountDerpy]

It's kind of a double edge sword, the risk of over-warning being they aren't taken seriously and the risk of under-warning being lives could be lost. Issuing PDS warnings and emergency warnings do work at activating people more than a traditional warning does my a decent margin, but it's hard to tell when exactly that risk is needed in some of these fringe situations like the 15th. Personally, despite knowing the flaws with the system and the inherent risks, I would rather have a false report labeled as an emergency rather than have a destructive tornado under-warned or outright missed, especially in areas that are effective radar holes like NE Arkansas. Was it a jump the gun reaction, most likely, but it was also a calculated risk that a meteorologist took based on the information they have and I applaud them for making a call rather than dragging their feet. I may be biased since I have family in the Walnut Ridge/Hoxie area and lived there for several years.

The biggest problem I have is not with the misuse of any particular warning level, but it's how some of the more arm-chair meteorologists on social media who berated people and even trained spotters for "deliberate false reporting" and "being stupid" during the 15th event. I'm not talking about trained spotters and people with any legit weather experience, more the types that watched Storm Chasers and have a basic understanding of radar interpretation and believe themselves to be as qualified as NWS personal, and take the time to more or less gatekeep the community. We should use these situations as learning tools to better understand things like spotting under duress and storm structure identification, but when we have people who go out of their way to put down the untrained populous for misinterpreting storm features and belittle the intelligence and skills of trained spotters we can end up in a situation where we get less reporting from the general public (again, a double edge sword) and the same distrust that we would get from over-warning less intense cells.

[HrZD]

I'll never forget when I saw the Tornado Emergency issued for Burlington County in NJ for the supercell that spawned the Mullica Hill EF3 in 2021. I'm still upset i was stuck at work instead of witnessing a historic tornado for my area.