Fanciful Story of the Joplin Warnings

Several people have brought to my attention the new book, Storm Kings, by Lee Sandlin. Of specific concern is the narration about the Joplin tornado.  As most of you know, I wrote a book about the Joplin tornado, When the Sirens Were Silent. The print version of Sirens has sold out but the Kindle version is still available for the very reasonable cost of $2.99.

I found Mr. Sandlin's writing about the Joplin tornado to be shockingly inaccurate. His comments are quoted verbatim in black. My comments are in blue. This is found at location 4232 of the ebook:

• Everything about the professional response happened exactly as it was supposed to... The tornado watch was timely and accurate. Nothing else about the warnings that day went as it should have. 
• the warnings were going out with a lead time of twenty minutes. The warning said the tornado was headed northeast which would miss Joplin.
• The helicopters of the local TV stations were in flight. None of the TV stations in the Joplin - Pittsburg television market, nor anyone else, was flying helicopters near the storm. 
• the chase teams were hurtling down the highways, not only transmitting real-time data and video about the tornado, I am unaware of any live video of the Joplin tornado being broadcast by a chase team and I know there was none being broadcast by helicopter. 
• but stopping to warn the police on the ground that it was coming. This is correct and the person who did this was Jeff Piotrowski. I write about this in Sirens.
• From everywhere came the moan of the civil-defense sirens, which seemed to have panicked and baffled the townspeople. The sirens were sounded from 5:11 to 5:14 for a tornado warning that did not include the eventual path of the Joplin tornado. When people turned on the TV upon hearing the sirens they were told, the location of the warning was north of Joplin. When the NWS issued the tornado warning at 5:17 that did include the eventual path of the tornado, the sirens were not sounded -- the sirens were silent! And, if someone was watching TV or listening to NOAA weather radio, they heard the tornado was over Riverton, KS moving northeast which would miss Joplin. The sirens were not sounded again until 5:38 when the tornado was already doing F-4 damage. The reason the people were "baffled" is because of these errors in the warning system. Think about it: They were told at 5:14 the tornado warning did not include Joplin and they went about their business. Without the sirens sounding again (until the tornado was at Joplin's doorstep) they had no way to know their situation had transitioned to mortal danger!
• The inflowing winds were so fierce they scoured the bark off trees and carried trucks through the air for more than a city block. This is absolute nonsense. None of this occurred. The damage Sandlin describes was caused by the tornado, not "inflow winds." 
• It was hard to think that there had been any progress at all since the time of the Tri-State Tornado. Again, nonsense. Meteorology has made huge progress in tornadoes, in hurricanes and in preventing commercial airline crashes. There is an excellent book that tells that dramatic story.

You verify the above by viewing this towercam video as the tornado was moving into Joplin:

The video begins with meteorologist Caitlin McArtle talking about a funnel cloud near Galena (inaccurate location provided by NWS) in a routine tone of voice at 5:37 p.m.  She is being assisted by newscaster Jeremiah Cook. The tornado sirens are silent as the tornado approached the city.They begin to see power flashes which, at first, they attribute to lightning, again, in a routine tone of voice. The sirens come back on (5:38) and they realize the tornado is on their doorstep. They begin shouting to the audience to take cover.

When I interviewed Caitlin about the tornado when I was writing Sirens she told me she was "shocked the tornado was in that location [moving into Joplin]."

As to the "inflow winds" ripping bark off trees, I have viewed numerous videos of the Joplin tornado, including Jaime Green's (not shown) and the winds are relatively calm ahead of the storm. Look at this video from chasers on Ridgeline Road in east Joplin. They are in the exact path of the storm in the first two minutes of the video (the shopping center with Jo-Ann Fabrics and Radio Shack at 1:15). Even though this strip mall is moments from being destroyed, look at the trees behind the shopping center. They are hardly moving. You can hear the sirens at the start of the video. But, the sirens are turned off! Listen at 1:30 when they stop talking -- you can't hear the sirens any more.

Finally, at about 1:55, one of the chasers says he is worried about "gigantic hailstones." The NWS mis-interpreted their radar and warned Joplin of "baseball size hail" -- when what they were seeing was debris lofted by the tornado.

I have not read the rest of Storm Kings so I cannot comment on whether these inaccuracies are confined to the Joplin coverage or are more general.

Some in the meteorological profession have buried their heads in the sand when it comes to the considerable issues in Joplin. As long as they keep telling the public that "the professional [meteorological] response happened exactly as it was supposed to" -- another Joplin could occur.

One hundred sixty-one lost their lives that day -- the worst tornado death toll since Weather Bureau tornado warnings (as we would define them today) began in 1957. It is long past time that weather science stops blaming the victims and spinning fanciful tales about the warnings that horrible day.