Ian

chair in the wall seems to make sense especially if the chair was metal. it did not penetrate terribly deeply into the exterior.

being sandblasted by large objects cant be fun

I thought maybe you worked for the NWS/associated... apologies. Don't need to state again my larger thoughts on Accu -- I've been plenty unkind to them over the years. However, I don't think Mike Smith and his team are non-scientists or something-- that's for sure. I do find that at least outwardly there are communities within the larger ones who have no interest in debating.. it's 'our way or you're moron'. Unfortunate.

Not to my knowledge. And I don't see that normal statement in your sig so maybe I'm off, but your statement was part of why I made my comment. You're clearly extremely intelligent etc., I just found it offputting.

I find the back and forth between NWS types and AccuWx kind of amusing. It's almost like grade school. Again, I'd back the NWS 9+ out of 10 times but sometimes things just get too emotionally driven and people don't even actually look at things which are worth addressing as they are blinded by the other stuff. I have no doubt that there are assessments going on within the gov as to what went wrong this spring.

It's almost too bad WeatherData is part of Accu... since it seems people will make judgments before even knowing what they are doing there.

I've never been a fan of AccuWx but after meeting Mike Smith it's hard not to believe in his motives.

I don't think that's what the discussion is about at all.

I'm not sure the issue is always false warnings etc, tho undoubtedly that is part of it... some of it is likely communication. There are still plenty of people who don't even know the difference between a watch and a warning. I don't know if the science is truly there yet that you don't have to overwarn at the margins "just in case" etc. I do think that the conventional wisdom of finding an interior room is not necessarily helpful in the extreme cases. I don't know what the other option on that level is though other than figuring out a way to have a better idea that a tornado is going to be an EF3/4/5 before or as it is happening. Still, some people probably just can't get to where they need to be to survive in some cases.

I think they have some point whether or not it was a good time to send that. I'm as big a supporter of the NWS as you'll find, but this year makes it pretty clear something is still wrong with the warning system imo.

i canned it for you.. decent detectiving anyway.

Good to hear you're OK... good luck getting through this, I'm sure it is not easy.

Yeah, I'm not sure I read the last line the first go at it. I agree -- I expect he is OK, at least physically.

I think so. Definitely his first name.

Not on the list... sorry.

It's not

amazingly unlucky for the town looking at the aerial composition

his post was at 5:27 that the couplet was nearly on top of him, so looks like some stretch of time between that and their current damage path at least, if he was being literal.

Mike Smith's talk at the conference should be extra timely. Hopefully some good Q&A. People should register if they have not. http://conference.americanwx.com/

That's probably a good idea going forward... the warnings need to be further refined probably too. Still, you'd think after seeing all that carnage just a few weeks ago people would be extra heightened to this stuff right now. I wonder how many laypeople actually understand that survival gets extremely difficult on these high end events unless you take very serious precautions. In some cases it's probably just not available as well.

im pretty sure i'd make a post on my last 1% of iphone power even if it meant i couldnt call my family but eh. to me, the fact that a weather nerd was seemingly just sitting and talking about the couplet about to pass over him might tell a larger tale of this event. it's easy to imagine the worst, so i guess we'll just have to hope for the best for now.

yeah.. im sure most people would have a few things to do before coming back to amwx after something like this.

It was sort of a perfect storm though I guess an argument could be made that the cell was ongoing for quite a while before it got there even if the tornado seems to have energized right before hitting. Seems it hit at just about the worst time possible outside perhaps a weekday around the same time. Sure, some may have been sleeping later so who knows, but there would have been less people out and about overall. It's scary that with all the advances there is probably not a lot that can be done from stopping this from happening in the future.

True. I guess I'm saying I'm fine waiting rather than guessing.

well, it's different when you're keeping a spreadsheet vs looking for a small splinter of your home.