JTizzle;534832 wrote:They were localized though, The sirens in my county didn't go off until right before the storm. The linear storms are not usually good at producing tornadoes but this line was different. It was capable of producing a Tornado in a moments notice. That's why millions of dollars are spent on research and the warning systems. The biggest brunt of the warnings were only associated with one particular area of the Line, where it was producing a very large hook echo. It is usually a given in a hook echo that there is at least one tornado or more.
With the amount of wind shear yesterday not predicting any tornadoes would have been a dumb move in my eyes.
Whoa! Big difference between predicting and warning! Tornado watch was in effect and that was enough unless there was need for a warning. But counties were getting warned before the storm even reached them! I understand the need for advanced warning, but my definition of a warning is that it is happening, not that it COULD happen. That is what the watch is for.
And actually, my gripe with this storm wasn't really the tornado warnings anyway. It was all the hype by forecasters and the high wind warnings for 10 hours, when it was only warning type wind for all of 5 minutes. Seemed it almost created some panic for something that was nothing more than heavy rain with a small window of high wind.
Now, obviously there were pockets of winds that were worse and warranted any warnings issued. But it just seems that the weather service tends to get a bit excited sometimes, and like stated above, it can almost have the opposite effect. I know many people that don't even acknowledge winter weather warnings anymore because they are so ridiculously off sometimes.
