Rebuilding Joplin: The Advancement of Weather Technology

Sunday, May 22, 2016 marks the five year anniversary of the EF-5 Joplin Tornado. It was a day that shook the nation after more than 150 lives perished in the storm, lives that changed the face of weather technology. ABC 17’s Stormtrack Meteorologist Aaron Morrison sat down with Steve Runnels of the National Weather Service in Springfield, to talk about what we learned from that day and how we have improved upon it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the Joplin Tornado is the deadliest single tornado since modern record keeping began in 1950. It was so deadly it ranks as the 7th deadliest in U.S history.

“If you consider the over 500 fatalities that occurred in 2011, it did show the NWS that we had to make some modifications,” Runnels stated.

523 deaths to be exact, the most since 1953, when numerous tornadoes killed 519 people. It’s those years that stand out that have meteorologists and the NWS working to adapt technology and better warn the public of coming severe weather.

“We want to provide as much information that allows people to make as good of a decision as they possibly can,” Runnels said.

Information that experts say will help provide better lead times, allow meteorologists to be more specific, and create the ability to inform the public of just how serious a situation can become. It’s a problem that’s been worked on since 2011 and the NWS was given a blue-print to follow.

“Number 1, the social scientists told us that we have to be more specific,” said Runnels. “We have to give more information to people, to allow them to understand the situation they are in very quickly.”

This is done by the increasing use of social media by the broadcasting industry as a whole. Whether it be through Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram, meteorologists are finding better ways to connect with the viewers to get information out.

“The second thing; confirming the threat,” said Runnels. We’ve got Dual-Polarization Radar now. Not only are we sending a beam out in one direction, but also another direction. From there we can tell if debris has been lofted up into the sky.”

Dual-pol is by far one of the greatest advances in radar. It allows the radar beam to decipher the shapes of what the beam is actually hitting. Through the use of Dual-Pol Radar, we can now have radar confirmed tornadoes without visual aid. Not only that, but looking at the atmosphere as a whole, radar beams are now able to fully understand just what type of precipitation is falling and how fast.

“Since 2011, now we are able to cut the time in half in which we can see low level scans of the atmosphere using radar,” ABC 17’s Chief Meteorologist Sharon Ray said. “So, rather than it taking 4 minutes to see the entire scan, we can now see that within 2 minutes. This is very important in detecting rotation, which leads to tornadoes.”

“When I came into the NWS back in 1988, our forecast on day 2, the accuracy we had on day 2, we now have on day 5,” said Runnels. “So 5 days into the future, we can now be right day in and day out.”

It’s these advances in technology that is allowing forecasting to become more accurate, in turn allowing for more time to prepare for severe weather events.

“We have better technology, we have better computer models, we have better education than before,” said Runnels. “But when it comes down to it, when we issue a warning, what we are trying to convey to people is that it is our belief that we are confident that storm is going to produce a tornado.”

The Joplin Tornado, along with countless others that occurred that year will long be studied. It’s the studying of them that will help meteorologist understand tornadoes more, but it’s the 161 lives that were lost in Joplin that Sunday evening in May, that will forever remind people of just how deadly tornadoes can be. It reminds us of the importance of being alert and ready to take action, no matter how advanced technology has become.

“You’ve got to be prepared, whether it be an hour in advance, ten minutes in advance, or a minute in advance,” said Runnels. “You’ve got to know what to do if your area goes under a warning.”

Joplin’s Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer reiterates Runnels statement. He told ABC 17 that following the tornado, he discovered that by the time a warning was issued for any storm, withing 10 minutes there is a funnel cloud spotted. Ten minutes in which he says you should use to get to safety.