[tkahnoski]

Watches are common, indicators are common, warnings tend to be very last minute.

I consider myself a very weather aware person living near the edge of tornado alley in Dallas, I get all the alerts, generally keep a strong watch on radar development and storm arrival times (hail is just as much as a concern as tornadoes).

In general if there is a detection of a rotation or a strong hail core on radar, emergency sirens will go on near the affected area. Sometimes it just happens too fast, so if there is another method like the article sounds to detect a strong potential a tornado is forming it will absolutely reduce casualties.

As an example I lived through in October 2019. There was one hour between a Tornado Watch being issued and when the EF2/EF3 hit the ground. Watches generally last a long time and cover a large area so they aren't particularly helpful to me other than to indicate to 'check the radar on the regular'.

Because I was already glued to my phone I saw the warning right away, I was able to text friends that lived a few minutes from the tornado touchdown point that there was a tornado right next to them. Their sirens hadn't gone off yet, by the time they had taken shelter they heard the sirens and the wind kicking up right after. They got off light on damage compared to the rest of their neighborhood but I can't imagine someone out walking their dog or running an errand and then only having 1 or 2 minutes to find shelter. I'm still amazed this thing didn't cause more injuries particularly in the early minutes when the news crews and meteorologist were playing catch up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_October_20...

Maybe this tech would have helped give a clearer indicator versus the usual approach of waiting to see something on radar or manually spotting it. Or maybe some storms will just form too fast to have any useful indicators.

[dylan604]

>I consider myself a very weather aware person living near the edge of tornado alley in Dallas,

Howdy neighbor! Do you find it mildy calming when looking at the weather warning tweets from Delkus while his avatar is cheersing you with a cocktail?

This tech might provide another layer of confidence for tornadoes, but as you mentioned, the hail is another story in and of itself. I have mixed feelings about the "tornado sirens" being used for hail/severe weather without a tornado. I lean towards it being a good idea. I'm actually in Dallas, not one of the suburbs, so we tend to get protected from tornadoes by the infamous heat dome. Earlier this year, the sirens went off for hail and they were talking about softball size hail and larger west in Arlington. So, yeah, people definitely need to know about that. However, it does remind me of the Hawaii debate on using the tsunami sirens to warn of the fire, but it is totally different in that this hail/tornado siren both mean to seek shelter and not a confusing run towards the danger.

[tkahnoski]

Ditto as to living in "Dallas" proper.

Tweets from Delkus and the Fort Worth National Weather Service are the main way I pay attention to new developments. Typically stuff will get posted there before live TV coverage starts. There's almost always a graphic posted of what the window is they expect for storms to form which helps me understand what I need to pay attention to.

I have a relative in another state whose a meteorologist and he doesn't have nearly as much fun as Delkus's team does online.

As far as over-indexing on preparedness goes, there has been at least twice our kids school has dismissed early in light of a severe weather forecast, however they do this several hours ahead of time (parents can't react that fast anyways). Only for the storms to be your more normal strength T-storm by the time carline starts. I can certainly appreciate the intent, but it's almost never that certain what's going to happen unless the storms are already popping up.

[AmVess]

I lived down the pike from the place where the largest tornado in history touched down, and you are spot on about warnings and knowing beforehand. If you are letting a tornado sneak up on you, you are doing it very wrong.

Hell, you know bad things are coming when it is 75F in the morning in December. The last bit of tornado weather telegraphed itself in the morning and didn't touch down until mid afternoon, yet I heard people on motorcycles when the storms hit.

[brianpan]

The person you are replying to is saying the opposite. Watches are common (and the sky everywhere will warn you). But a tornado WARNING comes without enough time to broadcast and react.

No one is surprised by all the conditions that point toward a tornado. The problem is that in certain areas, the tornado watches are occurring ALL the time and you can't stop every time there is one.

So, yeah, in hindsight everyone saw it coming. But no one thinks THIS time will actually be the time so it does sneak up on people. My father recent went to bed during a tornado warning and one touched down less than a mile away. He got lucky. More reliable indicators of actual tornadoes will be helpful.

[dylan604]

The people think the same way about hurricanes. Only they have much more time in advance to ignore it.

[pixl97]

Ya because people have to go to work and such. I've been in countless tornado watches and days that could have spawned a tornado. Some years this covers a significant amount of spring. It's difficult to always maintain an eye on that.

And I've been involved in tornadoes on days where there was zero risk of the event. Surprise you're getting a tornado out of a totally random storm that was not predicted.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

So much this. Where I grew up in Kansas it can be bluebird skies in every direction with a clear weather forecast at 3pm and by 5pm it's nothing but darkness and hail.

Tornado alley is where warm air from the gulf collides into cold air coming from the NW. The line where these collide shifts around. Storms can form very unpredictably and rapidly.

On the one hand it's awe inspiring to see a massive thunderhead materialize out of nowhere in just a couple hours. On the other it means what the other commenter is saying is very misleading. Texas, where the other commenter is apparently from, is at the southern end of tornado alley and I believe not quite as dynamic, which may explain their attitude somewhat.