National Weather Service to Change Warning System
The system, which goes into effect Oct. 1, switches from alerts based on county lines to notices aimed at specific communities, weather service officials said Tuesday. Using radar and computer modeling programs, the system is meant to predict the moment a storm will hit a community or even a certain crossroads.
Known as storm-based warnings, the new alerts could reduce a warning area from thousands of square miles to a few hundred square miles, experts said.
"A storm-based warning focuses on a storm itself and the geographic area that might be affected by it," said Eli Jacks, a meteorologist at weather service headquarters in suburban Washington. "We can really reduce the number of people being warned by reducing that geographic area."
The new system will initially be limited to warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, floods and marine hazards. Later, it will be expanded to include other threats like extreme heat, Jacks said.
Tornado forecasting began in the late 1940s, and the government started issuing weather warnings in the 1950s based on a network of storm spotters with radios and telephones. Warnings generally have been issued on a county-by-county basis ever since.
(click here for the remainder of the article)
