Questions: Deadly Tornado At Boy Scout Camp
UPDATE: Questions about why the warning was not received, and links to radar loops, are below.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Breaking news... a deadly tornado outbreak Wednesday evening has killed five people... one (according to the StormMatrix) was in Soldier, Kansas [Google Map]. The other four perished at a Boy Scout Camp (Little Sioux Scout Ranch) [Live.com Map] in Iowa, according to MSNBC. A tornado tore through the camp, injuring 50 more, around 6:45 PM CDT.
NOTE: VIDEO MAY HAVE ADS; VIDEOS NOT AVAILABLE ON WIRELESS DEVICES
The NWS in Omaha issued this statement on their website, along with a velocity radar image:
You can download* a reflectivity and velocity loop here, courtesy AccuWeather.com RadarPlus (the camp is at the "X"). Note that circulation was observed on radar 30 minutes before the storm hit.
According to the video, the officials advised the boys to take cover "when they saw the funnel cloud forming." There was no shelter available, and they did not receive the warnings that were issued by the National Weather Service (presumably because they did not have a NOAA WeatherRadio) or any services from commercial weather companies such as AccuWeather. In my opinion, any camp in Tornado Alley should be equipped with all three.
Looking at the NWS's new storm-based warnings, where they attempt to draw a polygon around the area affected, the camp was covered by at least one warning (originally I thought it was on the edge, but I later found out that was a Continuation Tornado Warning, issued when the NWS chops off parts of the back of the warning - see both warnings here). Of course, all of this is true only if MSNBC has the camp placed correctly on their map, and if the Iowa State warning archive site is correct.
In any case, had they had a NOAA WeatherRadio, they would have gotten the warning, polygon or not, because they are issued by county (the NWS is moving away from county warnings to have polygon warnings power everything, though EAS & NOAA WeatherRadio will be the last things converted).
So the questions that we should be asking ourselves today, (and which some in the media already are) is why didn't they get the warning, why didn't they have shelter, and, as Henry (PREMIUM | PRO) just pointed out, why were they there at all (based on the forecast of a Moderate Risk yesterday and the subsequent Tornado Watch which was issued for the area, they could have been evacuated earlier). Of course, if you evacuated camps every time there was a Tornado Watch in Iowa, you wouldn't be at camp much this time of year.
Leave me some comments below and let me know what you think.
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