Re: RMS HWind
Posted by
Gianmarc on 9/19/2017, 1:58 pm
| I think on-air meteorologists need to stop fixating on aspects of a major hurricane that are of little to no relevance to evacuation decisions, such as the overall size of a storm in miles or the furthest reach of tropical storm-force winds, and work in a more calculated manner to educate people about more relevant data such as the reach of the storm's most violent winds. The irrelevant obsession with Irma's size in miles (350 miles or whatever it was) had people like my own mother thinking that the storm's Cat 5 winds extended for hundreds of miles. I had to explain to her that actually only those within 25-30 miles of Irma's core experienced that kind of wind force. When on-air mets say things like "the tropical storm force winds extend out 150 miles," especially when they describe those fringe effects of the storm as "dangerous," my response always is a combination of, "So what?" and "Are you kidding me?" Surely they did not think that millions of people evacuated Irma to evade tropical storm-force winds. I myself never would have left Naples for Sarasota and then left Sarasota for Orlando if I thought I was fleeing tropical storm-force winds. I think to some extent--not primarily, but to some extent--the obsession among professional mets who know better with sensational but otherwise irrelevant details such as the total width of a storm in miles is a result of the need for ratings. It scares people who don't know any better, and that foments the kind of panic that is exactly what we do not need in a situation such as the approach of a major hurricane. |
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RMS HWind -
cypresstx,
9/19/2017, 12:31 pm Post A Reply
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