"Cry Wolf" Weather Authorities

We had some pretty horrendous storm activity around 2 AM last night, which got me thinking a little about how the weather tracking institutions in Butler and Hamilton counties operate as opposed to how they did things in Logan county when we lived there.

Last night, as with every occasion where we've had severe thunderstorms like that, the local authorities fired up the air raid siren (or so I call it, anyway) to alert the public. What I don't understand about this practice is that they did it nearly an hour and a half before any rain was falling in our area.

So lets get this straight: There is bad weather coming, yes. It might, maybe, possibly produce tornadoes, yes. So much water going to be quickly dumped from the sky that flooding might be a problem, yes.

Is that any reason to wake anyone when the storm is over an hour away? I don't really think so.

So basically, what I gather is that the local authorities near where we live today sound the alarms as soon as the national weather service puts out a “watch” alert, stating that it is likely that hazardous weather will occur but they don't know precisely where or to what severity. In my opinion, a watch alert is kinda silly in the first place because I can figure out for myself that bad weather is happening by looking out a window.

In Logan county, however, authorities waited until funnel clouds were being seen in the vicinity of the town. Simply put, if you heard the air raid siren, you'd better get your ass out of sight because they were serious about it being an imminent danger. There was no lag time – it was time to be prepared right now.

Fact of the matter is, last night, I got to the point where I basically was ignoring it because they “cry wolf” so often that I don't take them seriously anymore. Sure, once the weather actually started getting bad (an hour and a half AFTER the alarm), I got serious about it... but still.

In the end, we're alright and no real harm has been done, but I felt like complaining anyway because I'm tired and cranky...

Of course, that might not really be anything new...