Ten things every meteorologist should know: Number 1- You can’t please everyone!
In my profession, I get a lot of emails--A LOT! Most are actually spam, many are very nice, some offer constructive criticism, and others offer--well, just criticism.
A recent example of the latter is an email the weather department got following our last severe weather event. During this event, we had several severe thunderstorms in the News 13 viewing area and a lot more that were rough thunderstorms, but not severe--at least according to the definitinon set forth by the National Weather Service. You guessed it--someone emailed complaining that they had severe weather, but we had not broadcasted any kind of warning for their area. This email caused me to have a very profound revelation: Severe is in the eye of the beholder. As a meteorologist, I know that for a severe thunderstorm warning to be issued, doppler radar must indicate winds in excess of 58 mph and/or 3/4 inch hail. The trouble is 50 mph winds don't look any different to the average person than 60mph winds and if there's hail of any size, it's a pretty scary thunderstorm. Add in the fact that eventhough I personally think it should be, lightning frequency is not considered when issuing warnings, so I can see how the average person could feel the way the person did who sent the email.
See, in the scientific world, things are very black and white. If it's 58 mph winds and 3/4 inch hail, it's severe. If it's 55 mph winds and 1/2 inch hail, it's not--end of story. The trouble is the rest of the world doesn't always work that way. What scares one person may not scare another. They don't care about 50 mph winds versus 58 mph or hail size. If it's scary, it's severe--end of story. A severe thunderstorm in Eastern Carolina probably seems like a spring shower out in tornado alley. Frank, who moved here from Oklahoma and Melissa, who came here from Texas can probably both testify to that!
Unfortunately, since each individual's degree of fear and opinion of what severe is are difficult to guess and vary from person, warnings are issued using very black and white conditions. It's either severe or it isn't. There's no "kinda almost severe thunderstorm warning." I can propose it to NWS, but no promises.
Lesson learned: As a meteorologist, I could be the best meteorologist the world has ever known, but I will never be able to please everyone!
Thoughts?
Posted by
on 07/10 at 11:46 AM
Chris, you can please some of the people some of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. I think said that right.
You do good work.