Rick Smith
@ounwcm
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Warning Coordination Meteorologist at NWS Norman. Follow @NWSNorman for official info. Opinions are mine and not my employer's.
Norman, OK
Joined January 2009
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It's Lightning Safety Week, but it's also Lightning Spelling Awareness Week -
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High drama on the
@KHOU
feed as
@BrandiKHOU
flags down a boat to rescue a driver trapped in their 18 wheeler. Wow. She needs a medal.
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My son was in this tornado in Jonesboro. He’s okay but there’s a lot of damage. So scary. Waiting for pics and video from him.
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Wow! What a powerful moment and moving show of support with a standing ovation for WFO Birmingham. Thank you
@NWSDirector
!
#NWAS19
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I surveyed the El Reno tornado damage today. As I walked through the mobile home park, I saw this newspaper on the ground. Evidently someone had saved it from 12 years ago, but the headline would have worked in today’s paper.
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Back in Norman just in time for some beautiful sunset mammatus!
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Local stations are always looking for story ideas. Here’s one: do a story explaining to viewers that it’s illegal, dangerous, selfish and stupid to stop your vehicle in traffic lanes so your car doesn’t get hailed on. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
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People, the tornadoes don’t know about the sirens. Hearing sirens doesn’t mean anything as far as the storm is concerned. Sirens are sounded by people and policies vary from city to city. Tornadoes can happen without sirens. We spend too much time talking about sirens. /rant
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When meteorologists say it's difficult to forecast snow, this is just one of the reasons. This band over central Kansas was only 8 miles across in places.
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We are about to go through something none of us has been through before, and I don’t think a lot of us are really grasping it. This is not going to be like a couple of fun snow days where everyone gets to stay home then we go back to life as usual. We are just beginning.
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Went to doc today after having fever and cough since Tuesday. I called first and given symptoms nurse met me at my car wearing gown, gloves and mask. She did swab for flu test and I waited in car for results. Came back positive for flu A. First time I’ve been glad to have flu. 1/
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My guaranteed accurate Oklahoma snow forecast:
1 - many will hope it snows;
2 - most will not get what they were hoping for;
3 - many will be irrationally angry at forecasters.
Be kind to your meteorologists. This isn't easy and they are working hard to give you good info.
#okwx
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Damage survey around Laverne today. Found EF3 damage right on the Beaver-Ellis county line. Tornado was over 8/10 mile wide at times. Thankfully it dissipated 6 miles SW of Laverne.
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Got to see some of those giant hailstones from Friday night’s storm in Burkburnett. No doubt they were smaller than they had been when they first fell, but still impressive. The largest as far as we know was 5.33 inches, but it’s likely there were multiple 5 inch+ stones in town.
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Remember it will take a while - days in some cases - for NWS to survey all the damage to determine the number of tornadoes and their intensity. These surveys will involve dozens of staff members from multiple NWS offices driving hundreds of miles in challenging conditions.
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It's been ten years since the historic May 31, 2013 El Reno tornado and the tragic loss of Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young who died in the tornado that day. As we reflect back on that day, we also remember the other 18 people who died in the tornado and flash floods.
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Schools have it almost as bad as weather people. You get criticized for closing too soon and criticized for waiting too late to close. Lots of factors go into these very tough decisions.
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If you're not in a severe wx risk area today, please do not use NWSChat. Don't log into your local chat room or any other office's. We need to help ensure that NWS offices, emergency managers and media in the threat areas can use NWSChat today and tonight. Thank you.
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Follow
@NWSNorman
for updates today. A couple of key messages: 1) most people will not see a storm, but if you do, it will probably be very bad; 2) the tornado potential will go UP after dark. Do not get in your vehicle this afternoon without checking the weather first!
#okwx
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After 50+ years of being a weather geek, I finally have a weather station. Finished installing my
@weatherflow
Tempest this morning.
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Tornado damage surveys take a lot of time! Here’s a slide I put together for survey training for our office that shows some of the reasons why….
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Why do people get so angry when they find out their town didn’t get by a tornado? Are 90 mph winds not good enough? What am I missing?
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I never envy school systems having to make closing decisions. If they don’t decide early enough, they get criticized. If they decide based on a forecast that turns out to not be exactly right they get criticized.
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More tornado deaths than all of 2018, and the deadliest day since the May 20, 2013 Newcastle-OKC-Moore tornado. Sadly, it truly only takes one...
BREAKING: Sheriff confirms death toll is now at 22 from an apparent tornado that has devastated an Alabama community
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Jo’s dad tells her it’s going to be an F5 as they run to the shelter at the beginning of Twister. That would have been two years before the Fujita scale had even been invented.
#MrTornadoPBS
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Lots of very appropriate posts remembering the tragic loss of Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras and Carl Young who died in the 5/31/2013 El Reno tornado. But we should not forget the other 18 people who died in storms that day.
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Scary to think what might have happened if things like proms, Norman Music Festival would’ve been going on when the dangerous storms moved in.
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Important information about Monday’s severe weather risk: # okwx
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A thread about last night's hail storm in Norman. Always interesting to hear all the "it struck without warning" commentary after a big storm. And most of the time, it's not that there was no warning, it's that the person commenting didn't get the warning. 1/7
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Remember, sirens are OUTDOOR warning devices. They are typically not designed to be heard inside buildings and are not intended to be able to wake someone up. Everyone needs multiple NON-SIREN ways to get life saving warnings, even when you’re asleep or lose power.
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Today we remember 21 people who died on May 31, 2013. Eight people - including a 17 day old infant - were killed in vehicles by the El Reno tornado. Thirteen people - including eight children - died in flooding. Twelve of those were sheltering from the tornado in culverts.
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Replay of Norman meteorologists and students being surprised by thunder about 20 minutes ago...
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Big thanks to
@environmentca
Edmonton for the pizza for SPC and WFO Norman! It was still warm when it got here! 😉
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Conditional: subject to, implying, or dependent upon a condition.
Tuesday's severe weather potential is HIGHLY conditional, and the condition is that we see storms form at all.
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This is the definition of decision support services. Meteorologists don’t get enough credit when they get it right, and this is a great success story. Good call
@OUemergencyprep
@OU_Football
@LincolnRiley
!!
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I like to think radar is picking up all the giant mosquitoes being swept away.... 🔥
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Not speaking for any other NWS office, but as surveys are ongoing today across the SE, I wanted to share this info on why it seems to take so long to do NWS damage surveys. Everyone works hard to get info out as quickly as possible, so be patient.
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Encouraged to see many more people wearing masks at the Norman Crest this afternoon. I’d estimate 95+%.
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Another day in May, another SPC outlook in the WFO Norman county warning area. On a nine day streak right now
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Pics this morning from Briarwood Elementary, Plaza Towers Elementary and what used to be Moore Medical Center. I visit these three places every May 20th to remember all the lives that were changed forever on that day in 2013.
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The sounds of a tornado damage survey - an alarm in what’s left of the motel and news helicopters overhead
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Things to remember about winter storm forecasts -
#9
: Anyone can post an image of a computer model’s snow forecast. That doesn’t make it accurate or reliable. Choose your information sources wisely and don’t blindly share forecasts with big numbers from unreliable sources.
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After nearly 26 years in the NWS, I did my first solo weather balloon launch this evening. Never too late to learn something new!
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I’m working hard - with some success - to not let the negative forecast comments bother me. I’ve probably typed a dozen or more replies to negative/ignorant FB comments and tweets today and then deleted before sending them.
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Watch closely for some familiar faces!
You don't face your fears, you ride 'em 🌪️
#TwistersMovie
arrives July 19th only in theaters.
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You know when we talk about having an emergency kit/supplies in your car? This thread is a great example of why that's so important...
I try not to tweet about daily inconveniences, but this experience has been insane.
For the last 7+ hours, I've been stuck in my car, not moving, in a total shutdown of I-95 northbound about 30 miles south of DC. (1)
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NWS is hiring entry level meteorologists at 21 different forecast offices. There are 34 openings. More info -
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I think all my meteorologist friends know this, but just in case you forgot...
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I wish we had a tool to communicate with all of our partners to let them know that the main tool we use to communicate with all of our partners is broken.
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A quick reminder that population is not supposed to be a factor when deciding whether to issue a tornado emergency. I see lots of mentions of "populated areas" "population centers" etc, and that shouldn't really be a consideration.
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Just saw the first mention of the O word for next week. Please. Can we not just talk about the risk of severe weather without using what's really a meaningless term that just freaks people out?
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If you’re a snow lover, try not to get your hopes up. Someone is likely to get quite a bit of snow, while someone just a few miles away gets little or none. We don’t know exactly where that will be. And be kind to your meteorologists - none of us wants to be wrong.
#okwx
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If you’re interested in learning about how NWS meteorologists survey tornado damage and determine intensity ratings, there is a lot of info online to help. You can start with this link for the basic info about the EF scale
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The SW MO storms yesterday were not a surprise, they did not "come out of nowhere" and they most certainly did not strike with no warning. If someone says this, it's likely because they weren't paying attention to all the available information that gave plenty of advance notice.
Absolutely no intentions of writing anything for
@ForbesScience
today, but I could not let the "it came out of nowhere" stuff slide in the
#duckboat
tragedy in Branson. My thoughts with
@texasembassy
@BMonahanWSB
mentioned
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