STORM TRACK: May 31, 1983 (Volume 6 Issue 4)

My chase this year has revealed, for the first time, how Federal budget cuts are beginning to impact the data gathering, essential not only to storm chasers but also to meteorologists responsible for issuing public weather watches and warnings. Two FAA stations at Gage and Hobart, Oklahoma are no longer open 24 hours a day (there may be others). This leaves a very large data hole in Oklahoma, immediately west of the most tornado prone region in the world! Although these stations are closed at other than prime storm times (from late evening to early morning), tornadoes do occur at night and before dawn (remember Houston this year?). This portent is ominous for the continued refinement, even accuracy, of severe weather forecasts. I know that some at the National Severe Storms Lab in Norman share this concern. These research meteorologists and student chasers, as well as other forecasters, are increasingly relying on surface data to supplement upper air reports in developing sub-synoptic, meso-scale forecasts. After 27 years of closely analyzing surface data, I have found it possible to regularly forecast accurate watch areas (including at least one tornado or funnel) which are half the size of Kansas City's (NWS) boxes and up to 9 hours before the onset of severe weather. In several instances, this technique identified the only tornado to occur in the midwest. In 1983, it was accurate 71% of the time. This is not to belabor my particular technique (each chaser has his own) but to underscore the value of and critical need for surface data. The general contraction in Federal funds is moving toward the reduction rather than expansion of data reporting -- or at least making it more costly and less accessible. The crux of this issue may boil down to poorer forecasts and some slight, but measurable, decrease in public safety! I don't wish to overstate this, but the loss of previously available data, magnified several times as cuts continue, seems to lead this way. What do you think? Write Storm Track and share your views.

A few minor corrections to the tornado sound study in the last ST. The cover date was wrong again (a casualty of late night preparation) and should have read March 31. The named reference in the second paragraph on the second page should have read "Wakimoto". Finally, in the Key to Figure 10, the third symbol T for "Sound heard from tornado near ground" should be underlined T. These are the main errors that come to mind. [This was fixed for Storm Track CD-ROM]