Weather Service Expands Severe Weather Warning

[Purveyor]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Residents of Sumner County, Kansas, received a dire warning last year as a tornado barreled through toward Wichita: Get underground or into a shelter - or else.

"Mass devastation is highly likely, making the area unrecognizable to survivors," the National Weather Service cautioned last April.

In an effort to get people to safety quickly, the National Weather Service said Friday that it will expand its retooled severe weather warning system in Kansas, Missouri and 12 more Midwestern states.

Starting Monday, it will provide media outlets and emergency services with more detail about the strength of a brewing tornado or thunderstorm, what it may hit and when. The system will also detail possible hazards and impacts of any potential tornado based on radar data, and more information on less severe but still "considerable" storms.

Mike Hudson, an NWS meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., said alerts with words such as "catastrophic" and "destruction" will likely be rare - once a year in Kansas and twice a decade in northern states like Minnesota. The words will be reserved for "those types of tornadoes that ultimately take lives, so we want to ring the bell a little bit louder," he said.

MORE...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/04/01/severe-weather-tornado-warnings/2042729/

We were just discussing yesterday and how quiet a spring for severe weather it has been so far this year.

[KurtNYC]

1. meanwhile the Weather Channel (now owned by Bain) has declared every raindrop a disaster

of epic supernatural proportions, worthy of fear-inducing names from recent movies. With TWC burning up their own credibility, it is nice to hear that some other entity has a responsible goal.

[KittyWampus]

2. your opening line has me laughing. "every raindrop a disaster"… film at eleven

[KurtNYC]

3. They have used Winter storm "Nemo" and Winter storm "Gandolf"

I think they should name one 'Django Unchained' and then maybe Winter Storm Don Vito Corleone. It is the storm you can't refuse.

[KittyWampus]

4. You mean actually use corporate branding in naming storms? YOU ARE GENIUS!

"For $100,000 the Weather Channel will name the next super-storm after your corporate brand".

This wouldn't work for some things but maybe for sports or cars or other manly things. -sarcasm-

I can just hear it now "Super-Storm Reebok is coming up the coast and due to rip the NJ Shoreline into shreds by daybreak".

[KurtNYC]

7. No joke -- they are really doing that

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/02/its-no-coincidence-that-your-favorite-characters-are-now-winter-storms

[KittyWampus]

9. Yeah, but that article points to geeky Sci-Fi love. I thought you were talking MONEY!

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. I seriously expect that to happen.

Since TWC calls its forecasts "products"

[LibertyLover]

5. When The Weather Channel started to name

winter storms, I decided that they were irrelevant. Well, that and the fact that their weather predictions for my area of the country were almost always wrong this past fall and winter. I wonder if they will try to raise money by selling naming rights to winter storms. "The Special K blizzard by Kelloggs blizzard will be hitting Kansas tomorrow morning with winds in excess of . . . ". I can see it now.

[HereSince1628]

6. It's been cool so far for much of 'tornado alley'

maybe that's keeping things quiet.

[benld74]

10. Violent, unpredictable tornadic activity headed for ________. Details during the 10pm News!!!