When a team of weather experts with the National Weather Service examined the May 10, 2008, tornado that killed 22 people in our area, the team made several recommendations to save lives.
One of them was the observation that the weather service has placed great emphasis on the role TV media can play in warning people about an approaching storm. The team recommended that emphasis be expanded to print media and Web sites.
The team found that online editions of newspapers can provide up-to-the-minute information just as TV and radio do. The Joplin Globe, for example, received hundreds of thousands of Web page hits in the wake of the tornado.
The team recommended that the weather service should make more use of newspapers and their online sites for the dissemination of severe-weather information.
Obviously, we weren’t going to argue with those recommendations, but that was the last we heard of the expanded alerts.
But, true to its word, the weather service sent the Globe early Wednesday an e-mail notice that stormy weather was likely to occur across the Joplin region later that day. In turn, we were able to alert our readers.
It looks like the National Weather Service is making good on its promise to broaden its horizons, using all types of media to better serve the public.
Tornado season has arrived, and our area has some of the most severe weather in the country.
The more messengers, the better.
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