As Severe Weather Awareness week continues, the National Weather Service is experimenting with aggressive and somewhat graphic language when issuing tornado warnings in parts of Kansas and Missouri this summer. The Weather Services Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma took the unusual step of warning the Central Plains two weeks ago, over a day in advance of what they deemed to be a quote “high-end, life threatening event” Warning Coordinator Todd Heitkamp at the National Weather Service Office in Sioux Falls says the wording the Weather Service is moving to is designed to grab your attention…
The wording for tornado warnings will include terms such as catastrophic and significant damage or loss of life, you could be killed and serious injuries are likely. The Weather Service will use such extreme terminology only after large destructive tornadoes have been confirmed with a storm. The experiment with harsh language in warnings is the result of a study done on why 155 people died last year in the Joplin, Missouri tornado, some of those people had taken the proper safety measures