Another Accurate Warning

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My home is in the hole in south central Kansas, but much of the rest of the nation is under snow and ice cover this morning. Since midnight (see below) snow has covered part of California's Central Valley.

This is the headline at the Dallas Morning News' website:
We meteorologists appreciate the increasing recognition of our accurate forecasts and warnings but here is my question: Why were there 4,000 people at DFW International that had to spend the night? Why were there "thousands" of drivers stuck for more than 12 hours on I-35?

Warnings are of no value unless people take them seriously and modify their plans.

Another ice storm may develop in the Middle Atlantic Region starting tomorrow:
Deep purple is an ice storm warning. Lighter purple is a travel advisory for freezing rain. Pink is a winter storm warning and the greenish blue is a winter storm watch. Greens are flood warnings. The warnings may be extended into Pennsylvania with time. Now is the time to prepare!

Here is how to prepare for an ice storm.

If you are planning to travel to or through Washington, D.C., Baltimore or Philadelphia late tomorrow through Monday, here is travel advice.

I'll have detailed forecasts on this newest winter storm late this afternoon.

Comments

  1. We have been in D/FW for a couple of weeks, sandwiched around a week in south central Kansas. The reason there were stranded motorists down here in D/FW is because of a busted forecast a couple weeks ago. There had been ice predicted the weekend before Thanksgiving and it didn't happen, so I'm sure that many people felt it wouldn't happen this time. This was despite the best efforts of NWS and local news meteorologists to explain that the borderline freezing temperatures that busted the previous forecasts would not be the case this time. It was going to be really cold and whatever fell would freeze.

    I thought that the area mets did a great job on both forecasts, hedging their bets on the first one while being quite confident of icing on the second one. However, people don't respond to the confidence level of forecasts, only to whether what they expected occurred or not. Another reason why sociology plays a huge part in warnings. I think you may have already covered that topic once or twice before though. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Clay,

    Thanks for the info. Yes, sociology plays a major role in how warnings are perceived.

    We were very confident about this most recent ice storm. It is amazing to me that people still don't correctly react to warnings. Thus, my efforts to publicize our successes.
    Here is an amazing video of drivers on icy roads doing different speeds and, over less than five minutes, two dozen crash. http://www.wisn.com/news/south-east-wisconsin/waukesha/germantown-hwy-4145-pileup-captured-on-camera/-/10150328/23398136/-/d6wy9ez/-/index.html

    Mike

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