I received this note from a viewer in Hale County this morning…
“All I can say is that I used to count on James Spann for all our weather. Not anymore. He said there was a warning for Hale County, but gave no specifics at all. Was it because there was no threat to Tuscaloosa or are we just of no concern down here? These are the thoughts and opinions of several people in the Newbern community, not just myself.”
Let me respond. Here is the sequence of events Monday night…
9:59 p.m.: A tornado warning was issued at 9:59 for eastern Marengo, southwestern Perry, and south central Hale county. The rotation responsible for that warning was near Octagon which is southeast of Linden. Remember, we are now dealing with polygon warnings that are much more specific. That rotation would move roughly up Alabama 25, remaining mostly in Marengo and Perry County for the next 30 minutes. Both Marengo and Perry Counties are in the Montgomery TV market, not our market (the Birmingham market). We know lots of folks watch us in those two counties, but a majority of people choose to watch local stations out of Montgomery, making them out-of-market counties for us. We provide short cut-ins for those “cross-over”, out of market counties, but we can’t provide long form coverage.
With that rotation expected to stay mostly in Marengo, we went ahead and aired our 10:00 News on ABC 33/40. Of course, I was near the top of the news showing the storm location and track, and that was updated that during the weather segment. By the weather segment, that rotation was decaying quickly and the storm was no longer severe, in my opinion. That storm did not produce any damage.
10:30 p.m.: Then, a stronger rotation developed again down in far South Marengo County, and the NWS issued a tornado warning for Marengo County at 10:30. That rotation continued to look good on the journey northward through Marengo.
10:44 p.m.: The NWS issued a tornado warning for eastern Hale and northwestern Perry counties due to that rotation, and at that time we went into long form severe weather coverage on ABC 33/40 (Hale County IS in our market). We clearly showed the TVS (tornado vortex signature) as it moved through Gallion and into southern Hale County. The couplet was very impressive.
10:52 p.m.: An EF1 tornado rips through Newbern in Hale County producing significant damage and two injuries.
Here is the bottom line: A warning was issued 8 minutes before the Newbern tornado, and our long form coverage also initiated 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, so folks watching ABC 33/40, or with a NOAA Weather Radio, should have had adequate warning and time to get to a safe place.
I really don’t know why the viewer was upset, in fact, I had quite a few nasty e-mail messages from people upset that we covered up Nightline and the Jimmy Kimmel show providing tornado warning coverage for Hale County… here is one example:
“For those of us NOT interested in your brutal coverage of
rain falling in Hale county…(geeze) how about puting ABC
on the HD channel or if not that, stream it on your web site.
Even James said many times tonight (Monday 10/22) that
this event was so UNspectacular, in all his carrer he had not
seen so few counties covered by a tornado watch! The
tornado warning ended at 11:45, it’s now 11:48 and he is
still rambling about what the weather was like 1 hour ago!”
All I can say is that my e-mail inbox is always like a box of chocolates!
