The Tornado Emergency That Had NO Tornado: How it Happened

Tornado Emergencies; the absolute highest warning the National Weather Service can issue for a tornado. Only with the utmost confidence, a Tornado Emergency is used to warn the public when there is no doubt (supposedly) that a violent, damaging tornado is ongoing, and often are issued for towns with a higher population. Since the warning type was first issued for the 1999 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado, The process of issuing a Tornado Emergency often requires coordination from the National Weather Service, alongside damage reports from local government officials, and on the ground reporting from certified storm spotters. I mean, could you imagine what would happen if there ended up being a tornado emergency and there ended up being no tornado after the fact- you already saw the title of the video and if not, uh hi I guess?

On April 15, 2022, a series of Tornado Emergencies were issued in Northern Arkansas for what was thought to be a large, violent tornado on the ground, turns out there wasn't one. But how does this happen? Was the National Weather Service incompetent-no. The series of events that led up to the decision to issue a Tornado Emergency is very complex and deserves a deep dive into how the National Weather Service ended up issuing a Tornado Emergency. Join me, as we look into how this happened, and why the NWS issued a tornado emergency for a storm that ended up having no Tornado.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:14 The 2022 Tornado Season So Far
3:56 Synopsis
5:34 Problem 1: Radar Dead Zones
9:52 Problem 2: Large Hail Impacting Radar
12:28 Problem 3: Visibility
13:49 Problem 4: Storm Reports
16:06 The Event the Day Of
17:54 What ACTUALLY Happened
21:43 Conclusion and In Defense of the NWS

Special Thanks to Rishi, Diego Garcia, and various members of the Weathernerds discord server for proofreading the script and making sure I wasn't sounding like an idiot.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:

Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.(Most) Images, footage, and music are NOT OWNED BY ME AND ARE OWNED BY THEIR RESPECTFUL OWNERS. I own nothing but the video itself.

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Tags (They are useless otherwise so please ignore): Alferia , Weather , Weather Documentary , Tornado Emergency , Emergency , #Tornado , #Documentary , #Weather , Jonesboro , Jonesboro AR , Jonesboro Tornado , Jonesboro Tornado Emergency , Arkansas Tornado Emergency , Severe Weather , Hail , Tornado Documentary , April 15 Tornado Emergency , Storm Spotters , National Weather Service , Jonesboro Tor-E , PDS Tornado , Destructive Tornado , GD Alferia , Tornadoes , Arkansas Tor E , Radar Dead Zones , Spoofed Storm Report , False Reports , False Storm Reports

[keithmauger]

Professional Arkansas aviation meteorologist here: I was on duty that night and I remember the “cars flipped over in Walnut Ridge” report. Given the situation, the NWS acted excellently and I would not have done anything differently had that area been within my AOR.

[virtzrl]

That was one series of REALLY unfortunate events. The NWS really wasn't in the wrong there because they did not have much of a choice based on all those factors. In my eyes, its better to have a tornado emergency with no tornado, than a violent tornado without a tornado emergency. Better safe than sorry. And good video!

[Snowstar]

I'm flabbergasted by what sort of person decides to specifically file false NWS spotter reports for places they weren't even at...

[redflashpontiac]

The person that filed the false storm reports should be charged criminally. People are arrested for far less. That person endangered almost 30, 000 people with that false information. Not to mention the damage to the credibility of the NWS which may put many more people in that area in danger because now they won't heed warnings. The NWS isn't free of blame, they need to fill any radar dead zones, at least the ones in areas where tornados are frequent

[patientlycrafts]

I was in the area within this emergency. My own take is I was grateful to the professionals giving us advanced warning, as like you mentioned, it seemed like an average storm passing until it came within a hour from our home. There was alot of storm damage and heavy winds in our area. I'm thankful we have a metal storm shelter in our home, but most in our area don't. It gave us time to calmly enter and lock our shelter. Tornado or not, it was a powerful, damaging storm.

[RyanVaughan]

I'm the broadcast met on the video. I'm pretty sure we never used the term "Tornado Emergency" in our broadcast at KAIT. Not that it matters, but we were not confident about the tornado the entire time. In fact, you can hear Castleberry and I talking about the CC drop not lining up with higher reflectivity or the couplet. Bad situation, but I don't think anyone was malicious.

[ancctech]

I wouldn't blame the National Weather Service for what happened. They rely on spotters on the ground to give real time information to help local meteorologists warn the public of current weather conditions. The woman who falsely reported a tornado should be prosecuted for that. She should be made an example of. For she did cause mass panic.

[ancctech]

Since 1999, there have been 194 Tornado emergencies in the United States to date, and all but 16 have resulted in a confirmed tornado with about 554 fatalities.

[the-angel-of-light-gardevoir]

Considering The tornado emergency was first used in the infamous 1999 Bridge creek tornado, this is a considerable low for what should be used when lives are truly at risk, I watched videos of our local news sites screaming to get in shelter from the dreaded monster that tore through central Oklahoma

[whitcassie]

I was let go from my job because of this. I worked at a Jonesboro hotel and no managers were on the premises. I worked at the front desk of the biggest hotel in town, and there were multiple events going on in the building that night. Typical friday night things at the bar, the restaurant crowd, a realtor convention, and something else that had the 7 story hotel near sold out. The managers wouldnt answer their phones, so the three of us at the desk decided to start the tornado safety procedures which included getting any of the 1000-2000 people who wanted to take shelter in the shelter. My coworkers started posting paper signs pointing to the shelter location, and i went to where the band was playing, stepped in between songs and made the announcement for those who werent staying at the hotel and therefore wouldnt get the text or call to their room. We didnt force anyone to go anywhere, just said hey this is the situation and if you wish to take cover this is where you can go. Well because it came out that there was no tornado, I was let go for "causing unnecessary panic" and "failing" to notify any management. That woman shouldve absolutely had charges pressed against her.

[indy]

better a tornado emergency declared with no tornado, than a large tornado happening with no tornado emergency declared !!

[PaganCurse]

I remember this one all too well. I was in a discord group. At first we saw a possible sign of rotation. Later on we heard a storm chaser said that there was a tornado on the ground but there was no clear footage. And no clear sight on the tornado. At that time I was watching for a CC drop. But there was no CC drop. Just a massive hail core that caused alot of damage. If you didn't know what was going on and there was no tornado warning with how bad the hail and high winds you could assume that there was a low end ef1 tornado on the ground. But preliminary reports confirmed there was no tornado. Pretty sure everyone has heard of the Ryan hall weather Channel on youtube which admitted that this seemed like it wasn't a tornado but a hail spike. And I'm glad you pointed out the false alert.

[NyghtWolf]

I'm NWS Skywarn certified.. and I agree tbh. I was shocked at how easy it was, & honestly would have been MORE than happy to take several more classes & even a secondary test. Due to how easy I felt it was, I went out & have been eating up every NWS instructional video I can find & learned how to read soundings/skew-T's as well. I really hope that person was prosecuted, cause what she did was absolutely awful & dangerous, & gives other responsible Skywarn peeps a bad name.

[TheDude]

Another comment on spotting in this region: there are very few highways. They are lined with trees, very curvy (where the tornado warning was initially issued) and have limited lateral access roads. Spotting is very, very difficult.

[richardburdick]

I was on the ground in Cherokee Village when this storm came through. I was aware at the time that as far as people knew, this was a spotter confirmed tornado (no one knew at the time of the spoofed false report). I can honestly say this storm actually scared me before I heard that the tornado was spotter confirmed. You can still see a few hail damaged buildings in the area. I had to go to Jonesboro the next day and was perplexed to see very little to indicate that a tornado had came through the area. I am glad that there wasn't a major tornado ( or any at all), but I would rather the NWS err on the side of safety.
In response to the suggestion that this storm couldn't or should not have produced a tornado, I say ok, perhaps. I will also remind you that we have had tornados here when indications were possible but improbable. One came right through here 2-5-08 causing EF3 damage locally. More recently, 12-10-21 There was a tornado that touched down near Lake City, AR producing EF3 damage in Arkansas and EF4 damage in Missouri . This supercell tracked into Kentucky and after a brief cycling, caused the fatalities in Mayfield KY (there were others also in AR and MO and elsewhere in KY). Nobody on these days expected Tornadoes of this scale of severity (especially in Feb. and Dec.) . Point being, Always be careful.

[Alferia]

Most of the corrections that had to be made were either cut from the video thanks to YouTube's editor or turned out that I was correct.

Error at the synopsis, I used the wrong maps, used the 850mb instead of 500mb and vice versa.

[safespacebear]

Being a weather spotter is a very noble thing for one to do. You literally work to keep your community safe and alert. It's very sad that someone abused their position.

I'm glad the NWS treats the info they get from spotters seriously.

[rektspresso]

Dude I love your channel and I'm so glad I found it. I've been interested in weather, especially severe, since I was a kid, and I love in-depth analyses like this. You clearly do quality research and sound genuinely interested in the topics you cover.

Thank you for your time and effort in putting together awesome videos like this

[DaniTheFemby]

20:24 not only that, it was in the area where an EF4 tornado tore through just 4 months prior. The radar image shows "Bay 9:00 PM, " which is where said tornado touched down.

[Littlemanairsoft]

Fun fact most weather nerds probably already know, The Sirens are not controlled by the NWS they are actually controlled by the county sheriff's office.