NWS office in storm warning mode While flash flood warnings have -- rightly and understandably -- dominated the news the past 10 days, this does not mean the National Weather Service's (NWS) other types of storm warnings are effective and meeting their goals. They are not; a point made here for more than a decade.  I have two pieces of new information.  The first involves an independent study (by an outside contractor) of the NWS's tornado warning program that was published last week but was not noticed because of all of the news and concern pertaining to the July 4 Hill Country Flood. Below are the results of the study with my comments and more below that.                                                                                ...

Photo from Grant County Sheriff, Michael Rath The tiny town of Whitman, Nebraska is in ruins today after being struck by a tornado yesterday evening. Incredibly, the National Weather Service did not issue a tornado warning until after the town was destroyed, in spite of storm chasers and others calling to tell them a tornado was in progress.   Damage photos by Jeremy Holthus While there were earlier radar indications to issue a tornado warning, the radar clearly showed a tornado threat at 7:33pm MDT (all times Mountain).  Per the Sheriff's press release, it appears the tornado touched down about 7:30pm.  A ddition -please see the comment at the bottom of this piece.  At 7:41pm, a distinct hook echo (circled) formed on a rotating supercell that was moving south southeast. Had I been working the warning desk at WeatherData, Inc., unquestionably I would have issued a warning at this point, regardless of whether I had yet heard from chasers in the field. The radar map do...