Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Justice C. Bigler]

Had a near miss tonight.

Line of tornadic storms came right up I-44 as usual tonight. It already had a history of producing tornadoes by the time it go to downtown Tulsa, and the building was right in the middle of the storm track.

I was watching the radar, listening to the Skywarn net and watching the skies when the sirens went off. We had a whole ballet company on stage doing warms up. We made the call and got everyone off the stage and out of the house and down to the dressing room level. Held everyone about 45 minutes and pissed off the ballet company. Rehearsal started about 45 minutes late.

We had something come through...Fucking high winds, probably at least 90mph straight line winds, and a rotating wall cloud right over the building. A line of buildings about two blocks north of us had roofs and windows blown out. A building right down the street from us had a bunch of construction supplies pick up off the roof and dropped on the sidewalk. Bunch of car windows shattered by hail and roofing gravel.

You NEED to keep up to date on the severe weather outlook from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/ They issue a 7 day out look for the whole country and will identify the types of severe weather they are predicting and the general area. Details in their text products.

Also, get a weather radar app for your phone or tablet. Radar Scope for iProducts and Pykl3 Radar for Android.

And if you don't have a ham radio and license; get a hand held weather radio, which will keep you up to date on the severe weather situation anywhere in the country.

[Milt Hathaway]

Had a near miss tonight.

Congratulations on taking the correct actions regardless of the attitudes of those you potentially saved.

Also, get a weather radar app for your phone or tablet. Radar Scope for iProducts and Pykl3 Radar for Android.

And if you don't have a ham radio and license; get a hand held weather radio, which will keep you up to date on the severe weather situation anywhere in the country. [/font][/size]

Excellent choices on the apps, too.

And for the rest of you reading...

iPhones can receive emergency alerts and make noise/vibrate to get your attention. Just be certain the option is turned on in the Notification Settings. I'm not familiar with Android's options here, but I wouldn't be surprised if a similar option was available.

You don't need a HAM license to listen to Skywarn discussions. Any scanner radio can tune those frequencies and your local HAM club will gladly give you the info you need to help you listen, especially if you are even remotely responsible for crowd safety. Skywarn training is free to the public, too, and can help you know what to watch out for both in the sky and on those radar apps.

[William Schnake]

You NEED to keep up to date on the severe weather outlook from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/ They issue a 7 day out look for the whole country and will identify the types of severe weather they are predicting and the general area. Details in their text products.

Also, get a weather radar app for your phone or tablet. Radar Scope for iProducts and Pykl3 Radar for Android.

And if you don't have a ham radio and license; get a hand held weather radio, which will keep you up to date on the severe weather situation anywhere in the country. [/font][/size]

Excellent advice.  Additionally, in my contract I have a clause that reads:

All final decisions about weather and continued performances can only be made by Schnake Sound, Inc. 

We put that in 2 years prior to the Indiana State Fair stage collapse.  I have only had to use it a couple of times.  However, if you are using my liability policy then I want final say in if we are safe or not.

Bill

[Justice C. Bigler]

You don't need a HAM license to listen to Skywarn discussions. Any scanner radio can tune those frequencies and your local HAM club will gladly give you the info you need to help you listen, especially if you are even remotely responsible for crowd safety. Skywarn training is free to the public, too, and can help you know what to watch out for both in the sky and on those radar apps.

I purposefully didn't recommend a scanner because, all too often, when you're in the thick of it and a tornadic supercell is bearing down on your AO; the radio traffic on the Skywarn nets gets really confusing and hard to keep up with. Coupled with the fact that there are a lot of...imprecise and exaggerated reports; it makes it very difficult for a novice listener to discern the relevant traffic from all of the living room storm chasers and whackers that like to hear themselves talk on the radio.


The NOAA Weather Radio will give you the exact text from the NWS with their warnings, the type of hazard occurring, the speed and direction and what precautions to take. Plus they can be purchased from any Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy etc...for $20-$30.

[frank kayser]

I think Bob Leonard and the folks in the NE may argue severe weather season started some while back...

[Justice C. Bigler]

I think Bob Leonard and the folks in the NE may argue severe weather season started some while back...

mmm....no. Even dumping 7 feet of snow on an area doesn't compare to the dangers associated with a rapidly developing tornadic supercell. These things will spin up, level a whole city and evaporate into thin air within 30 minutes sometimes.

And we get storms that produce multiple supercells in a single evening. Yesterday the NWS had us forecasted for an Elevated Risk of severe thunder storms with a Limited Risk of tornadoes. And that produced at least 4 separate tornadoes over the course of the evening.

[Bob Leonard]

I'll agree that there's a huge difference between a tornado and snow storms. I've lived through both, and I'll take the snow, the big difference the snow and damage from the snow lasts a long, long time.

If anyone might be interested there's a company called WSI. They provide the weather for most TV stations, airlines, etc. in the USA. A friend of mine used to work for them and I have used them since. You'll find the weather app at the top of the page.

http://www.wsi.com/

[Tom Burgess]

Yep, that was a wild day indeed.  We closed up a little early so everyone could get home.  Fortunately the worst of it passed a few miles north of us.  It would be fine with me if that's the only time my tornado warning app lit up this year.

[Justice C. Bigler]

Yep, that was a wild day indeed.  We closed up a little early so everyone could get home.  Fortunately the worst of it passed a few miles north of us.  It would be fine with me if that's the only time my tornado warning app lit up this year.

You're in Norman?

We've been pretty mild that last couple of years with no big tornadoes. But, I have a bad feeling about this year's storm season.

[Tom Burgess]

Yes, Norman.

Last year was pretty mild here, too.  Of course Moore got blasted 2 years ago.  The little one on Wednesday crossed some of the same path as the big one 2 years ago which took some similar turns as the monster in May of 1999.  They've been plum unlucky up there with that stuff.

We just barely (by 6 - 8 blocks) missed getting hit 3 years ago by a little roof ripper.  Never a dull moment in OK in springtime! 

[ProSoundWeb Community]