Good morning:
Storms yesterday were nasty for those who got them. Had a feeling it would be an all or nothing scenario. Dozens of reports/pics of damaging hail…several reports of 60-75 MPH winds and a few reports of tornadoes including a damaging tornado in Orrick, MO. Today will be more settled I think.
Forecast:
Rest of today: Decreasing clouds and windy. The sunshine that pokes through during the day should lead to warmer temperatures with highs in the middle 80s. Winds should increase to 25-35 MPH in gusts. We should stay dry in the KC area.
Tonight: I’ll be tracking storms across north-central and NE KS and NW MO. Odds favor that activity staying well to the NW and west of the metro. The activity should be moving NNE and not make a lot of progress to the I-35 corridor region until after 3AM or so. rain chances will increase in the wee hours of the morning. Lows stay mild with readings well in the 60s. South winds continue at 20 MPH.
Tomorrow: The convection early in the AM will weaken as it approaches the KC area and it’s very possible that we’ve had our run of severe weather yesterday and won’t deal with anymore from the system. Areas off towards the east will need to be more vigilant about the chances of bigger storms later in the day. Temperatures may stay mild in the AM but should start to drop sometime tomorrow afternoon. The better rain chances may be later in the AM and into the PM.
Discussion:
I know some of our viewers think all we like to do is be on TV and hear our own voices go on for hours at a time. At least for me that is totally NOT the case. I dislike severe weather coverage. It really does nothing for me. It’s stressful, at times disjointed, unpredictable, and frustrating at times. I enjoy the challenge of forecasting snowstorms much more than the coverage of severe storms. I usually tell my colleagues that I’m good with one decent day of severe weather coverage then I’m ready to move onwards. Yesterday was my 2nd day in 2 weeks of providing extensive severe weather coverage.
One of the reasons I dislike the coverage is because some of the viewers (regardless of what station you may watch…or swear off to never watch again) have a NIMBY approach to TV severe weather coverage. I get it…if the storm is not threatening them or their city…get the <@#%& of the TV. Trust me I’m used to it and their views. Yesterday on the blog I warned our readers that we would have a delicate balancing act heading our way with NASCAR. This was perhaps a “more important” race because it was right here in KC. I was VERY sensitive about that going into yesterday afternoon. The ratings last night were double what they usually were for NASCAR racing in KC. So there was a lot more interest in the race. I knew that going in.
The tornado warnings started to fly around 5:15 PM…as a matter of fact they were issued as I was in the process of doing my normal 5:15 weathercast I think. From there we were on the air till 6:30 PM. Any other day (Monday-Saturday) and this would’ve been no problem. We would’ve covered up just the local news that we were going to do anyway. In reality we would’ve lost money at the station if it happened M-F because we also would’ve covered up local commercial breaks which are the life blood of local station revenue. Also something that I’m personally very mindful of in this day and age of tight budgets etc…just like any other business.
Think about that last paragraph. Many TV stations, when they are in extended coverage of severe storms potentially lose money by NOT running commercials. For example…suppose we show a program that our sales crew sold heavily. Advertisers buy that specific program…waiting for their commercial to appear…and instead they don’t have their commercial run..because of severe weather coverage. Station loses money. Sometimes they’ll get additional spots later on down the road…but IF they wanted to be in that specific program…maybe a compromise can’t be reached.
So let’s open up the mailbag and see how things went yesterday when I had to cover up the 1st 30 minutes of pre-race coverage on FOX. I (we) tried to inform the viewers numerous times that my intention was to go to the race before it started. Keep in mind there was a destructive tornado on the ground to the east of KC (by about 1 1/2 counties) and there were storms producing baseball sized hail in the area as well. Those storms were to the north of the metro.
@fox4wx turn on the Nascar race..yes it going to rain..put your stuff in the small box—
theREAL JB1RD (@TheREALJB1RD) May 10, 2014
@fox4wx @fox4kc put up a small screen with info and let us listen to prerace please….#nascar #kansasspeedway #fox4kc—
Ian Donnell (@IanD78) May 10, 2014
@fox4wx @fox4kc there are 3 other channels covering the storms! Stop jacking with the race coverage.—
(@RPMang) May 10, 2014
Then the emails…
Kim sent this one in…
“Get off my tv. If you have to say there no longer a reason to be then get off the air“
Dave sent this one in:
“I have had it with your coverage, or should I say non coverage. Fox pays a huge price to televise special events, you ought to do it. Just scroll the weather on the screen, let the other 3 networks cover it ad nauseum. I am DONE with anything Fox 4 except special shows, like the NFL or NASCAR. I will seek news elsewhere. Done with YOU.”
John sent this one in:
a competition in KC buy enough is enough get on with the race coverage.“
Art sent this one in:
“PUT THE RACE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” then he sent another one in…”Come on you dubbleheads put the race on. We don’t need this garbage.“
J sent this one in:
“scroll at bottom of screen, get the hell off weather“
Then in this social media world there is Facebook…ahhh FB. Don’t let me down.
Lee Butler sent this in via FB
“OMG. Your weather storm tracking is really annoying. You are tracking storms that Topeka, Columbia and Iowa tv stations are covering, because the storms are in their areas! You keep repeating the same thing, that there are no threats, so move on!“
Rhonda Jones had here thoughts…
“You suck. Get to the race“
John Forster chimed in as well…
“SHUT UP AND PUT THE RACE ON!!!“
There were probably more…but I think you get the point.
All for negativity because of this…
New video shows tornado tearing into town of Orrick, MO on Saturday, via @severestudios youtube.com/watch?v=YqXYye… http://t.co/8TGQUb8jk0—
BuzzFeed Storm (@BuzzFeedStorm) May 11, 2014
and this…
UPDATE: 80% of Orrick #MO sustained damage in Saturday's #tornado including up to 300 homes bit.ly/1jv6hyH http://t.co/RzTu2mtbJe—
Johnny Kelly (@stormchaser4850) May 11, 2014
Look I understand they viewpoints of those who don’t want us to be on TV warning some of our viewers about the storms. I understand they want to see the pre-race coverage of something many were waiting for all day. I get it and I understand the lashing out. It doesn’t bother me at all.
In the future myself as well as my colleagues at FOX 4 will do the exact same thing. Timely warnings via the NWS and local TV plus thankfully a “weak” tornado (misnomer for those directly affected I realize) helped to create a situation where there was just property damage and no fatalities and to my knowledge even injuries. Look at the above video again…notice that the tornado was strong enough to rip roofs of buildings straight into the air.
At FOX 4 we pride ourselves in trying to put this type of severe weather coverage into context of what our viewers want to see. IF I just wanted to hear myself talk…or IF my ego was so large I wanted this to be all about ME…then I would’ve stayed on longer (whether it was last night or on previous occasions). We try and do our best…we try and take into account what the viewers want and we try and keep things in perspective while we’re doing it. Are we perfect? Absolutely not. In the future will some of our viewers get mad at us again. Absolutely…it comes with the territory.
I should mention that there were a numerous email combination of emails/tweets and FB comments supporting what we did last night. Since this is a weather blog…and since our blog readers are more “weather aware” than is usual…I won’t post all of them…but they’re there if you look into the feeds a bit. In the end the race was delayed some 45 minutes because of weather concerns. IF the track would’ve been 10 miles farther north…there wouldn’t have been a race at all probably…that’s how close the significant rain was to the race track.
Here is one.
“Great job this afternoon, not only with the coverage and reporting but also with the way you kept your viewers informed about the tricky balance between safety and the coverage of a major, iconic sports event.
I appreciate the weather crawl at the bottom of the screen when NOAA issues watches and warnings — but the alert sound gets quickly annoying and somewhat distracting. It’s likely you need a sound, especially related to severe weather, but can we choose something a little more sophisticated and easier on the ears?
Please understand that I am a big FOX4 fan, have worked with a number of your anchors, reporters, and video/photogs in my former position as well as now, and submit this comment in a constructive manner.
Thank you, keep up the great work.
God Bless Our Troops
Rich”
So for those of you who hated our coverage or don’t “get” why we do this…I understand your viewpoints…and we’ll always try and do a better job next time. For those of you who appreciated our coverage I thank you.
1600 words later and no lengthy discussion about whats coming with the weather? I’ll try and get a new blog together early this afternoon.
Joe
