A Word About Yesterday's Tornado Forecasts - Update

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Yesterday, a meteorologist wrote an opinion on Twitter/X that said (paraphrasing), "no one should issue their own tornado forecasts because it will cause confusion w/r/t the official forecasts issued by the NWS's Storm Prediction Center's (SPC)."

Ironically, yesterday was also a day I disagreed with SPC. At 3:10pm, I posted this forecast for tornadoes.
The SPC had no tornadoes whatsoever in the forecast for eastern Kansas as shown below. Earlier in the day, they weren't even forecasting ordinary thunderstorms in the area (not shown) 

The tornado forecast below was issued by SPC at 8am yesterday.

The tornado forecast below was issued by the NWS at 3pm. The Kansas tornadoes were in the "no chance of tornadoes (white) area."
[update] The red triangles are the locations of tornadoes. The Ottawa and Spring Hill Tornadoes were both rated EF-2, that is defined as a "strong" tornado by the NWS. There was also a tornado near Pomona (documented by storm chasers) that I imagine will be rated EF-0 or 1. 

If SPC's forecasts were the only ones available, no one would have known tornadoes were a possibility until 6:35pm when they issued a tornado watch for eastern Kansas and western Missouri. That was just 30 minutes before the first tornado touched down. I believe this case, like so many others, demonstrates that having a variety of forecasts is a good thing.

I want to thank the Kansas City office of the National Weather Service for putting their radar into severe weather/tornado mode early in the event. It made keeping track of and warning of the storms much easier and more effective. 

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