tornado advisory terms

[Dan Goncharoff]

Up in NJ, a tornado warning means a tornado, or at least the
indication of one on radar.

http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=phi&wwa=tornado%20warning

AT 1133 AM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO
INDICATE A TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED NEAR CHESTER...OR 11
MILES WEST OF MORRISTOWN...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 50 MPH.

DanG

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 10:55 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: tornado advisory terms
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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