tornado advisory terms

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah, but get this. Every fifteen minutes last night we were
getting "Tornado Warnings" from the National Weather Service in Morristown,
TN.  To my surprise, each one of these warnings (and they were indeed called
"Tornado Warnings" both on screen and in the voiceover) was a warning for
"severe thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes."  More startling, the
voiceover went on to say "This tornado will be at X at such-and-such a time,
at Y, etc., etc.," The word "tornado" was explicitly used even when there
was no tornado. And, fortunately, there mostly wasn't.

To use "tornado" to mean "violent thunderstorm" can only lead to confusion
and possibly worse. In fact, in my day (i.e., before this year) a "Tornado
Warning" was indeed issued only when a funnel cloud (aloft or on the ground)
had actually been sighted. Anything short of that was a "Tornado Watch,"
which would be issued if tornado-spawning thunderstorms were possible.
(Actual advancing thunderstorms came under the heading of "Severe
Thunderstorm Warning.")

I don't understand (and therefore fear) the change in terminology.

JL

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 10:33 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      tornado advisory terms
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Having spent a harrowing night among tornadoes, I notice this morning that
> standard dictionaries (including the OED) fail to record the quite widespead
> use of two complementary weather terms:  "tornado (or storm) watch" vs.
> "tornado (or storm) warning."
>
> A "watch" is announced when conditions are specifically propitious for the
> meteorological event.  A "warning" is issued, more urgently, when the event
> is actually occurring in the vicinity--as when a tornado has been seen at
> ground level.  The terms and the distinction may be somewhat technical, but
> they are commonly employed by government agencies and the media, and they
> are expected to be understood by the public--whose lives may depend on the
> understanding!
>
> --Charlie
>
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