What an odd event. After getting off the phone with the NWS, their belief is that this started up with downburst winds with a tornado spinning up from the downburst winds. A rather RARE event!! The tornado was ranked an EF2 at its peak around 137th and Z. Alot of people asked “why didn’t we hear the sirens” or “the sirens were a little late” A few things to note. Sirens are meant to be heard OUTSIDE!! We always urge people to get a weather radio for their home. The tornado literally dropped with no warning. Thus, always take severe thunderstorms seriously. You never know when a freak event like this may spawn one.
Are you sure about what it says on your main weather page? About how your weather team works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide the first information on severe weather?
Because when the tornado sirens went off this morning, I turned to your station and all I saw was “Entertainment Tonight” interviewing Ed McMahon.
OK, so I am rather perturbed about your recent reporting.
One of the points which in my opinion, need to be stressed is follow-up to inform the public, about “tornado sirens”. Many reports you have aired today have had numerous witnesses indicate they never heard the “tornado sirens” sound before being effected by the recent storm.
“Tornado sirens” are more accurately called outdoor warning sirens. They are designed to make people who are outdoors, aware of pending severe weather. Being inside a well insulated house, most people are not able to hear a fire truck or police siren at a block away, let alone hear a outdoor warning siren at a mile away. Now, let’s consider that if someone is asleep at say 2:30 in the morning, the chance of hearing a siren (or awakening to one) is even more unlikely.
Weather alert radios are the best means to be notified of severe weather from inside any building. This radio is designed to make lots of noise when there is a local event needing to warn the public. Televisions, AM/FM radios and computers don’t magically turn themselves on when something is going on. These radios do.
You have had a few interviews with folks from the National Weather Service. You may want to ask them about the radios, since their actions activate the radios. The people who actually push the button to activate the outdoor warning sirens are at either the 911 centers or Emergency Management. You may want to contact them about this for a part of the story.
When a recent storm is high on the minds of the public, now is the time to be an information source which will likely encourage many people to get a weather alert radio. For $20-25 that is pretty cheap insurance to save lives when your roof falls onto your bed in the wee hours of the morning.
Storm Spotter
Ham Radio Operator
Volunteer County Emergency Management
I can vouch for the fact that getting a weather radio is a very good idea. I have had mine for several years and it has never failed to sound when a watch or warning is issued. I’m usually awake if there are storms in the area, but I decided to just go to bed last night. It was the weather radio that woke me up when the storms approached. Weather radios are certainly capable of saving lives, especially at night.
Yeah those NOAA radios are great, aren’t they??? By the time my radio activated this morning the winds were already subsiding at my house at 156 and Center!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, they don’t work unless the NWS issues a warning, of course. They were a little late with the warning this morning, I will admit. From what I understand though, there was little to no indication of a tornado on radar. It was not until they started getted reports of tornado-like damage that they issued the warning.
I too was upset at the fact that when I turned to channel 5, as soon as the sirens sounded, I was not seeing anything regarding ANY warnings for Douglas county! It was only when I turned to another local news station did I find out that we were under the gun. I have lost a little faith in action3 weather team at this point.
I lived in Millard when I was a kid, 1974 – 1976. I saw the Boy’s Town tornado (F1) and ran and told my mom “I saw a Tornado!”. You could see it from our front picture window at 14029 U Street. Back then the area was a brand new sub-division.
Mom said it could NOT be a tornado as the sirens did not go off. Sure enough – on the news was the report that a surprise tornado hit Boy’s Town.
LOL – funny how time passes but things are still the same!!
Action 3 coverage has gotten weaker and also this blog has gotten worse. CT used to post awesome information daily and teach me a lot of good information. Then the blog went down and once it finally came back up it is only updated a couple times a week. In weather times like these there should be tons to talk about on these blogs.
A lot of people have given KETV 7 a lot of praise as they were they only station with live coverage at 2:30 am and will gain a lot of new viewers when it comes to weather.
I too question the statement on your website:
“When it comes to weather in the Omaha metro area, no weather team is better than the First Warning Weather team, on Action 3 News. The Action 3 News First Warning Weather Team works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to ensure that you will be the first to know about any severe weather that is approaching your home.”
The “First Warning Weather team” did not live up to its promise early Sunday morning. I could go on a rant right now (I just deleted a whole paragraph) but instead I will just say I will be switching stations.
I had sent an e-mail to management (including CHIEF meteorologist Ryan McPike) regarding the coverage and still have not gotten one response about the coverage. That too is insulting when I take time to share my thoughts and don’t get a reply.
KETV just got itself another household.
Look guys people make mistakes. This was a bad one. But heck, this was a very rare event that caught many mets by surprise. Let it go.
This news channel loves touting it “First Warning” weather, but it was asleep sunday morning.
The channel is already patting themselves on the back as being on top of the storm damage coverage, as latest commercial states.
I find it rather sad the local stations 3 & 6 have spent so much money on fancy doppler radars only to leave them sit idle during one of the worst weather situations in the past 30 years.
I’m just glad one of the big three was on top of it.
Wow! You guys arent taking the “First warning weather” Like the new commercial you came out with, with people saying how kmtv is the best and the other stations are lagging.. Yeah right. I went to your weather page to look at the forcast today at 2 and it said last updated at 4:34 am. That is real committmen. Keep the great job up… Well the bad job. Ketv rocks.
Wow come on guys you are like a bunch of little kids!!! Even if they were on the air it wouldn’t have done much because the tornado was gone by the time warnings were issued and sirens activated!! and just for the record, i turned on ketv when i heard the sirens going off and they werent even on for a minute or two and the tornado was likely gone once ketv came on air. So everyone needs to just look at the bigger picture: By the time the NWS, 911, and local stations figured out what was going on, it was over! So everyone needs to just realize this was a freak accident and move on!
I would also like to thank all the spotters that were out spotting. It was great to turn on my radio and hear all the spotters out to help keep the citizens safe.
Keep up the good work ryan, CT, Dean and the rest of the action 3 weather crew!
You guys make me sick. This Tornado Situation was a very rare occurance. It formed out of a downdraft Wind Birst from the ground up, not the sky downward. This has to be the rarest events ever.
Ok…my two cents…I too am very dissappointed in the KMTV weather crew. No one was there. But…I am even more upset with the Nation Weather Service. Review the radar of the storms that night that moved through. That storm was severe when it was in Saunders county. Why on earth would they wait until the storm was almost in Omaha to issue a severe thunderstorm warning??? and then 4 minutes later jump it to a tornado warning…were they sleeping too? Had they issued the STW earlier the weather radios would have gone off sooner (at least the people who have them) giving people more of a chance to get their wits about them before being thrown into a tornado. Chances are by the time the STW was issued 4 minutes before the tornado warning came out the tornado was already on the ground….NWS should not make excuses for this…waiting that long is unexcusable…I was up watching 5 different radar sites and that storm was sever before it reached Douglas county.
Right. Though this storm did not have a hook echo on it and the tornado formed very rapidly and strangely from the ground up.
Just a note that tommorrow afternoon and evening are going to be very rough. Cape should be around 3500j k/g, dews around 70 and wind shear all expected. The moderate risk the SPC has looks to be right on target, this will be another event to watch out for and also continuing into the evening as the Low level jet strenghtens storms.
Lance
CT can we get an update on todays storms? guys lets have fun with this like the winter season!! lets perdict where storms are most likely to form and the highest risk area.
While KMTV made a huge error going unstaffed early Sunday morning, CT did get on the air before 3 am. And I’ll credit CT with being the first to explain this as a “gustnado”, which seems to be exactly what the NWS said happened.
Interesting to note that there were actually two tornadoes, according to NWS storm surveys. Here’s the link:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=oax&storyid=15241&source=0
This Evening looks like it could be interesting around here, but I will leave it to the experts to provide additional info.
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Whew! We had a ginormous storm last night that knocked out power to a good part of our small town. Thankfully no major injuries or anything like that.
Hello,
I’m trying to find a news story regarding the June 8th 2008 tornado’s that hit the omaha area. One of the stories was related to a family (been awhile so bear with me) believe it was a mother and 2 son’s who’s roof had been partially ripped off. I remember seeing this on tv but have had no luck finding anything on the net about it. Thanks in advance for any help.
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