News 14 Carolina, Time-Warner’s recently-hacked news channel, has two good accounts of the twenty-two strong tornadoes that swept the state on March 28th, 1984.
Reading parts one and two give a sense of just how far we’ve come in being able to predict them, though that doesn’t make them any less scary:
“Literally, the whole warning philosophy was that you didn’t want to issue a tornado warning unless you definitely knew that there was one on the ground,” said Jeff Orrock of the National Weather Service. “We really didn’t try to forecast severe weather back then, it was more of a reaction type thing.”
The weather this week is “unstable,” which can sometimes produce severe storms. We’re approaching the time of year when these storms can pop up. Makes me glad I’m a volunteer with Skywarn, the eyes and ears of the National Weather Service during severe weather.