[EAS] concerning the request for new weather Event Codes

[Bill Ruck]

The problem has been and will be "one size does not fit all."

I am using the San Francisco Bay Area as an example.

The first problem is there is little "on the ground" reporting west 
of here.  Yes, we have radar and satellite, but weather comes from 
the west which is the Pacific Ocean.  We've watched a storm come over 
the horizon from our home and tracked it on NWS radar but some of the 
time what looks like heavy rain when it doesn't rain much and some of 
the time it doesn't look like much until the fire hose hits us.

The second problem is that weather in San Francisco is totally 
different than weather in Livermore.

The third problem is even if NWS could precisely define and deliver a 
warning that will not work for someone that is working 50 miles 
away.  Which, today, is a reasonable commute.  If you are working in 
San Francisco but a tornado touched down in Livermore how would you 
know?  How are you going to take care of your kids or aged 
mother?  (I know, a tornado is very unlikely here . . .)

Back in the Goode Olde Days when radio and TV stations had a news 
department that could follow reports and make intelligent decisions 
on what to do on the air one did not have to rely on technology.  But 
today most of the time there is NOBODY at a radio station and 
television stations are getting close to that staffing level.  So it 
is much more critical to have an automatic system except that no 
system can be accurate and precise all of the time everywhere.

When I worked at KCBS the weatherman would walk to the other side of 
the building and look out the break room window before he gave his 
forecast.  I asked him once why.  He said "I got burned once.  The 
weather tends to come from the north but the studio windows face 
south.  This window faces north."  Similarly KSFO was famous for 
completely incorrect weather reports because their studios were 
buried in the basement of a hotel and there was no window to even look out of.

NWS is in a difficult place.  If they hold back and bad weather hits 
they get crucified.  But if they send out an alert or watch for every 
black cloud then they get beat up for crying wolf.

Bill Ruck
Curmudgeon
San Francisco