The title of this essay is from a press release that indirectly "blames the victim." The author is Sedgwick County Emergency Management regarding a fatal tornado that occurred just north of Wichita at 1:14 this morning. The tornado was rated EF-2 ("strong") intensity. I believe the wording is unfortunate as discussed below.  Photo: KAKE.com. Note that with a basement, as little as seconds to dash down the stairs might have been sufficient to avoid injury.  In what has increasingly and unfortunately become the norm in tornado situations, no NWS tornado warning was issued even though: Rotation was depicted on radar Radar shows lofted debris People from outside the NWS are observing tornadoes and bringing them to NWS's and the public's attention.  I want to be clear: the tornado formed practically on top of the home and there was probably no way to have warned in time to help the man killed. But there is absolutely no reason a tornado warning could not have bee...

WLNS TV, Lansing This time it was in central Lower Michigan. After dark. The time when the National Weather Service (NWS) says tornadoes are most dangerous.  Everything pointed to a tornado warning being issued -- but it wasn't -- until the tornado was on the ground, doing damage.  I am going to review this case as an illustration of why the USA desperately needs a National Disaster Review Board to determine why the National Weather Service's tornado warning program has gone so far off course as compared to its high quality from about 2000 to 2010.  Atmospheric Conditions  Conditions were ripe for tornadoes yesterday evening in central Lower Michigan. The "Significant" (meaning EF-2 intensity or greater) Tornado Parameter was at a high  value of 5 (2 is generally thought of as the threshold).  The NWS Storm Prediction Center, in spite of its forecasts earlier in the day (see: here   ) that there was a significant risk of tornadoes, chose to go with a s...

This has become far too common. Another obvious tornado warning situation where the National Weather Service in southwest Wisconsin waited too long to issue a tornado warning. Jeff Piotrowski, I, and a third meteorologist were tweeting about the threat but the NWS didn't issue a tornado warning until the storm was on the ground, lofting debris. Let's pick things up at 1:34pm (the time my tweet, below, appeared on the timeline). The rotation continued to increase. I was shocked by the fact a tornado warning had not been issued.  Again, it was shocking to me that a tornado warning wasn't out. Finally, at 1:48, the NWS issued a tornado warning. The problem is that the tornado had already been on the ground for at least two minutes.  The bottom display of lofted debris showed a considerable area of debris at 1:46pm -- two minutes before the tornado warning was issued. The rotation display showed an obvious tornado signature. Using an experimental program, the tornado was estim...