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March 9-10 Winter Storm


madwx
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I suppose the difference between you and I is the fact that I believe people can manage themselves. The average Joe can make his way in the snow, in the winter, in Illinois and Wisconsin. If there is a big headline event everyone is going to catch wind of it in this day and age. The same people caught of guard by adverse conditions, in this day and age, are the same people who will be caught off guard by adverse conditions whether the NWS puts out warnings or not. If the NWS didn't exist weather headlines would still be out to the public all over the place. Social media. Local news! It's everywhere now. There is a need for the NWS. I'm glad it's there, but they are no longer the be all end all. WWA or WSW? People are going to know what's coming regardless. 

But where do you draw the line? By that logic you could argue there is no need to issue tornado, severe thunderstorm, or flash flood watches or warnings because everyone could just get this information from other sources.


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3 minutes ago, mnchaserguy said:


But where do you draw the line? By that logic you could argue there is no need to issue tornado, severe thunderstorm, or flash flood watches or warnings because everyone could just get this information from other sources.


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This discussion began about winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings. Not other advisories. If you are talking in regards to tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, then that is a different discussion altogether.

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This discussion began about winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings. Not other advisories. If you are talking in regards to tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, then that is a different discussion altogether.

Lol it’s the same conversation though. I digress. This has gotten way too off topic and I don’t need people to complain about it like they did about Dallas.


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6 minutes ago, mnchaserguy said:


Lol it’s the same conversation though. I digress. This has gotten way too off topic and I don’t need people to complain about it like they did about Dallas.


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I digress. It's not the same. It started with people complaining about the NWS dropping the ball by not issuing a winter storm warning instead of a winter weather advisory. That's what I've been discussing. It's getting ridiculous at this point. Really, enough said about it. Lol

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2 minutes ago, wintertime said:

I digress. It's not the same. It started with people complaining about the NWS dropping the ball by not issuing a winter storm warning instead of a winter weather advisory. That's what I've been discussing. It's getting ridiculous at this point. Really, enough said about it. Lol

I'll bet you my left nut that snowstorms kill far more people than tornadoes do so it's actually totally the same. 

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6 minutes ago, Malacka11 said:

I'll bet you my left nut that snowstorms kill far more people than tornadoes do so it's actually totally the same. 

Splitting hairs between WWA's and WSW's = tornado warnings.                                                      

2+2=5

 

Totally the same!

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1 hour ago, wintertime said:

I suppose the difference between you and I is the fact that I believe people can manage themselves. The average Joe can make his way in the snow, in the winter, in Illinois and Wisconsin. If there is a big headline event everyone is going to catch wind of it in this day and age. The same people caught of guard by adverse conditions, in this day and age, are the same people who will be caught off guard by adverse conditions whether the NWS puts out warnings or not. If the NWS didn't exist weather headlines would still be out to the public all over the place. Social media. Local news! It's everywhere now. There is a need for the NWS. I'm glad it's there, but they are no longer the be all end all. WWA or WSW? People are going to know what's coming regardless. 

As much as people here take the piss out of NWS offices, I can't imagine relying on social media where people constantly spread hype and BS, whether knowingly or unknowingly.  On a lot of platforms there's a monetary incentive to hype every event for clicks.  Also, the general public is much stupider than you think. lol.

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37 minutes ago, MidwestChaser said:

Lmao at relying on social media for forecasts; you’d have nothing but hype snow maps 300+ hours from the event time.


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Too funny!!!! Lol!!!! Who said anything about relying on social media for an accurate forecast? Funny how people read into things! I did see someone refer to social media as a means by which people would know a storm is impending! Lol!!!!!!

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1 hour ago, StormChaser4Life said:

Oh the memories. I can't even remember what the criteria was for those. 

Heavy Snow Warning shared the same snowfall criteria as a Winter Storm Warning, except Winter Storm Warning just had a wind, wind chill and/or ice criteria to it.

Same goes for the Snow Advisory and Winter Weather Advisory...

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2 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

I can speak from firsthand experience that winter headlines make all the difference not just to individuals but to businesses that rely on them. Just because your mom doesn't know or care about the difference between 1" and 4" in the forecast doesn't mean that the difference doesn't have a major impact on society as a whole. An argument that all of this nuance doesn't matter is seriously riddled with naivete.

 

Anyone who thinks this year's Christmas storm didn't deserve a warning definitely did not drive around in it. I lost a fuel injector about half way through the 20 minute drive to my SO's apartment, and I barely managed to limp the car there the rest of the way. Thank fuck it's a short drive in a fairly populated area, idk what I would've done out in the middle of bumfuck. 

 

 

There was so much carrying on about snowfall amounts falling short with the pre-Christmas storm, I kept thinking, were you guys actually out in it? Road conditions were terrible. 

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20 minutes ago, wintertime said:

Too funny!!!! Lol!!!! Who said anything about relying on social media for an accurate forecast? Funny how people read into things! I did see someone refer to social media as a means by which people would know a storm is impending! Lol!!!!!!

Okay.  I brought that up.  I don't think the purpose of winter storm warning is exactly the same as a tornado or severe thunderstorm warning.  The threat isn't something so imminent that people need to be suddenly interrupted with whatever they are doing to be alerted.  Yes, people will probably find out a storm is coming via hearsay or social media, but it's still good to have an official source that you can rely on for consistent wording.  That is where NWS warnings are useful.

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Hurricanes are given a numeric classification. It's easy to understand the impact from a simple glance  ...

Winter weather could adapt the same type of impact rating.  

Just nice to have an winter event where mixing is kept at a minimum.  

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15 minutes ago, frostfern said:

Okay.  I brought that up.  I don't think the purpose of winter storm warning is exactly the same as a tornado or severe thunderstorm warning.  The threat isn't something so imminent that people need to be suddenly interrupted with whatever they are doing to be alerted.  Yes, people will probably find out a storm is coming via hearsay or social media, but it's still good to have an official source that you can rely on for consistent wording.  That is where NWS warnings are useful.

I agree! The NWS is a great agency. Not perfect by any means. All NWS offices are not the same. Some are, seemingly, more reliable than others, but I believe they all try their best to do a good job to keep the public as safe as possible. I also believe people, in general, are much too hard on the NWS when it comes to winter weather and snowfall forecasts in particular. They can not see the future. They have to rely on flawed models just like everyone else does to make an accurate snowfall forecast. Models are not technologically advanced to the point that accurate snowfall accumulations can be given for each particular winter storm. So when a forecast office puts out a winter weather advisory when, in hind sight, it probably could have been a winter storm warning people get far too bent out of shape. Who cares? No one is going to be put in danger because the NWS issued a WWA instead of a WSW. Tornado warnings are a different best altogether. Flash flood warnings a different beast. People's lives are dependant upon, many times, split second accuracy. As I can attest, because I am one myself, snow lovers get a little crazy over a missed snowfall forecast!

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34 minutes ago, michsnowfreak said:

There was so much carrying on about snowfall amounts falling short with the pre-Christmas storm, I kept thinking, were you guys actually out in it? Road conditions were terrible. 

Right! The morning after is what made it truly memorable for me. The snow was blowing so hard that even in daylight you could hardly see a hundred feet ahead of you. 

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