News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by JonathonW on Saturday December 11, 2021 @11:32PM (#29527166)
The NWS does distinguish between warnings for radar-indicated tornadoes and for confirmed tornadoes on the ground (usually confirmed by spotters), but you have to read the warning text to tell (you'll see phrasing like "particularly dangerous situation" and "confirmed tornado" in the warning when they're working based on something that's been visually seen versus radar indicated). For an example of what this looks like, see the Text Data tab here [1]; this warning (from last night in Nashville) was originally issued for a radar-indicated tornado, which was subsequently observed on the ground and the warning was updated accordingly in Update 1.

But you should take any tornado warning seriously. Yes, they come more frequently than they used to, but that's because we didn't have any advance warning before-- if you wait to get to your safe place until a tornado's been confirmed on the ground, you might not be able to get to safety in time. Or you might not get to safety at all; just because someone hasn't seen a tornado and reported it to the NWS doesn't mean it's not on the ground and deadly.

That's why you have to read into the text to see this distinction: the actions you should take if you're in the path of a PDS (observed) tornado warning and the actions you should take if you're in the path of a radar-indicated tornado warning are the same.

[1] https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/#2021-O-NEW-KOHX-TO-W...

Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by 1123581321 on Saturday December 11, 2021 @11:44PM (#29527223)
Excellent information; thank you. Communicating all this to the public is a significant challenge. You can't ask people to take shelter more often, and you also can't ask them to read more detailed reports. Compliance rate saves lives, for better or worse.
Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by cbfrench on Saturday December 11, 2021 @11:44PM (#29527222)
Also worth noting that “more frequently” for any given location is likely somewhere on the order of 1-2 warnings per year maximum.