rologist Cindi Clawson will
be checking radar while
fellow meteorologist David
Harker would be on Twitter
and Hoffman’s Facebook
page providing updates
through those social media
platforms.
While their jobs might
change for each storm, all
three of the station’s meteo-
rologists are given a task to
provide the most up-to-date
and comprehensive cover-
age possible.
That works for WNDU as
it does for WSBT or WSJV.
When the tornadoes hit
in 1965, if people had a TV
it didn’t matter because
the power was knocked
out. There were no phones
because phone lines were
knocked down. Informa-
tion was contained to those
who had police scanners or
short-wave radios.
In 2015, if someone has a
weather radio and access to
the Internet through a smart
phone or tablet device, they
can stay connected even if
power and phone lines are
knocked down.
Also according to Green-
awalt, the National Weather
Service makes a concerted
effort to bring in and train
more weather spotters.
Both Greenawalt and
Hoffman agree that the big
difference between 1965
and today, and what would
make the difference if an
EF4 tornado came through
Elkhart County again, is the
advanced warning systems.
“We can really monitor
something two to three days
out,” Hoffman said. “That
makes a huge difference.”
But that doesn’t rule out
surprises.
On Oct. 18, 2007, an EF3
tornado blew through Nap-
panee.
Hoffman said he went on
the air twice before that for
possible tornadoes in Fulton
and Wabash counties that
never materialized.
Despite the relative short
notice of the third system
that produced the Nappanee
tornado, Hoffman was able
to get on the air and warn
people of the impending
weather.
“Sometimes people come
up to me and say we saved
their family’s lives because
of the advance warning for
Nappanee,” Hoffman said.
“I don’t know about all that.
I do know that we used all
of our resources to provide
our viewers with as much
information as possible.”
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P
alm
S
unday
T
ornadoes
| 50
th
A
nniversary
The Goshen News Saturday, April 11, 2015 |
15
Warning
Continued from page 4
Technology helps in advanced warning
z
Families still urged to be
prepared in event of storms
By DANIEL RIORDAN
In 1965, meteorologists,
especially local ones, had limited
access to crude satellite technol-
ogy out of places like Chicago,
Detroit or Fort Wayne.
Looking at the difference be-
tween what meteorologists and
weather spotters had in 1965 to
2015, it’s pretty comparable to
computing in general from that
era to now.
In 1965, businesses had
computers the size of a room.
Now people carry around smart
phones that are much lighter
and have so much more comput-
ing power than their behemoth
predecessors.
For Nick Greenawalt, a
meteorologist with the National
Weather Service office near
North Webster, a major innova-
tion has been the ability to track
potential severe weather days in
advance.
“There have been so many
advancements in numerical
weather prediction,” Greenawalt
said. “What we call our forecast
models. They mimic atmosphere
with a bunch of equations. We
enter numbers and run it out. So
we can get output for potential
weather six hours later, 10 hours
later and several days out.”
Greenawalt said the methods
and education meteorologists re-
ceived in 1965 to 2015 is similar.
But the computing power from
then to now is so much greater,
it gives the modern-day meteo-
rologist much more information.
That, combined with the ex-
plosion of social media, the ways
to inform the public of impend-
ing bad weather has increased.
But despite all the advances
in technology, increased use of
weather spotters and things like
Facebook and Twitter to alert
the public, perhaps the great-
est tool to save lives is a simple
radio.
When meteorologists like
WNDU’s Mike Hoffman or
WSBT’s Bob Werner take to the
airwaves this month, they both
said to expect to hear a lot about
weather radios.
Local TV stations will offer
programs at local pharmacies
where they will sell and program
those radios.
“You have to think of them
like smoke detectors,” Green-
awalt said. “Most of the time you
don’t hear anything from them.
But they can save your life.”
Greenawalt cited Van Wert,
Ohio, in November 2002. Torna-
does ripped through northwest
Ohio on Nov. 10. Thanks to the
work of emergency manage-
ment in Paulding County, where
Van Wert is, a weather radio
was placed in the town’s movie
theater.
“It went off and cleared people
out,” Greenawalt said of the
weather radio. “That part of the
theater was destroyed. People
were in their seats just minutes
before.”
For Werner, a self-described
“young farm boy in Nebraska,”
the Palm Sunday tornadoes
stuck with him as a child.
And when he started as part-
time meteorologist at WNDU in
1977, he was using a lot of the
same equipment used by his
brethren in 1965.
“It’s enormous,” Werner
said of the difference between
weather technology then and
now. “The biggest difference
between then and now is the
presence of weather radar. We
didn’t get our first weather radar
until the early 1980s. Until then
we had a feed from Chicago.”
And the lion’s share of meteo-
rologist’s information back then
came from ground reports.
“We were relying totally on
weather spotters,” said Werner
of back then. “It was extremely
primitive.”
And because of that, the num-
ber of tornado-related deaths
have drastically decreased over
the years,” Werner added.
But as Hoffman points out,
all the technology in the world
can’t replace having a plan when
severe weather hits.
“Despite all this, people still
have to be prepared,” Hoffman
said. “Families need to sit down
and come up with a plan in case
bad weather strikes.”
Daniel riordan |
The Goshen News
WNDU meteorologist
searches for images re-
lated to the Palm Sunday tornadoes in the WNDU stu-
dios in South Bend last week.
Bice said.
The traditional construc-
tion of placing rafters across
a house to hold up a roof is
still used locally, according
to the inspectors. Codes for
rafters center around the
placement, number and size
of nails.
As stated above, the
modern codes require roofs
to withstand a 90 mph wind.
Only the two smallest torna-
does on the Fujita Tornado
Damage Scale might be
in that speed range. An F0
tornado reaches wind speeds
of 72 mph and an F1 ranges
from 73 to 112 mph, accord-
ing to information from the
National Weather Service.
“You can’t stop a tornado
from tearing a house down,”
Williams said, “but you may
be able to slow it down as it is
moving through to give you
time to get into the base-
ment.”
Both Bice and Williams
urged the public to consult
with their departments
before they build a house or
structure or place a manufac-
tured home on a lot to make
sure they are following codes
for their own safety.
“People try to avoid the
building department,” Bice
said. “And so many times
these are the people who
have these problems.”
Safe
Continued from page 8
