Breaking News: Tornadoes Can Kill You

I understand why they are changing tornado alerts.  In a lot of ways, it's a good idea.  Reminding people that they can die from a tornado could save lives if they really listen to the warnings.  The tornado that devastated Joplin had nearly twenty minutes warning.  But tornado warnings are a dime a dozen, and by July any self-respecting Missourian will snort, roll over and know the odds are against waking up in Oz.  If we stopped and took cover every time the skies threatened to kill us, we'd starve and turn ghastly pale from lack of sunlight.

Zandar was visiting me the week that Joplin was demolished.  I don't know if he remembers, but there was a tornado watch every single day he was here, and warnings more often than not.  Of course people are desensitized to the sirens and the map on the corner of the television.

I do have a concern with ranking the severity of the tornado.  It implies that there may be survivable tornadoes. The reality is, even a small tornado has the potential to do huge damage, and it's hard to predict whether it will grow or fade.

The obvious issue is that we have seen little growth in resources given to predicting and monitoring tornadoes.  When technology advances, a little cooperation between Google Maps and The Weather Channel could save lives.  Sometimes you can only warn a wide swath and pray for the best.  There are several times that more specific information can be given, and let people know when the threat affects their neighborhood instead of the "somewhere in the county there may be a funnel cloud" message we see today.

Every improvement is a step in the right direction, but a Suri voice won't change people's reaction to a generalized and unimpressive warning system.

By the way, here's a picture of the tornado system I snapped from work, a full sixty miles after the tornado broke up.  If the sky ever looks like this in broad daylight... TAKE COVER.