[EAS] 9-1-1 Outages From Derecho/Windstorm

[Mike McCarthy]

Adrianne

I'm not suggesting that anything more be developed.

The meteorological community has more widely publicized so many new 
phenomena as part of severe weather that some sort of educational 
campaign similar to that of tornado is needed just to get the word out 
there is more to a SVR than the most commonly known items (high wind and 
hail). Terms like micro-burst, down-burst, Deracho, leading edge 
gustnado, wake eddy vortex (common in Deracho events) bow echo or bowing 
segments, and mesocyclone are but a few events which can occur within or 
be part of a parent severe weather episode beyond simple straight light 
winds. But they're all unlike a tornado in some respect so as to render 
that message type unsuitable.

The problem with using a single straight line wind class is not all of 
them are straight line. Wake eddy vortices and leading edge gustnado's 
have tightly coupled surface based circulation and can exhibit tornado 
damage profiles off to the side of the main bowing straight line 
segments.  These are actually more dangerous as they can spin up very 
quickly and remain below the radar's lowest elevation.

MM

On 1/16/2013 10:21 AM, Adrienne Abbott wrote:
> We get these in the High Deserts of Nevada and the eastern Sierra. Even so,
> the problem is that so few people know what a Derecho is and how it
> threatens them that there's little value in developing a new "Derecho" code.
> You are better off sticking with "SVR" and terms like "straight-line winds"
> rather than trying to educate people about Derechos in a warning message.
>