NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE - BOSTON/TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS
INTERVIEW
Massachusetts faces natural disasters from the weather like all the United
State’s, making an interview with NOAA very informative for a traveler. An interview
with a Warning Coordination Meteorologist is included. Knowing the point of view of a
professional weather forecaster gives some good solutions that may help a traveler to
Massachusetts as well as other states in New England and the Northwest region. There
is also some current information about the latest Smartphone Wireless Emergency Alert
warnings and some reasons why they have become a necessity to improve traveling.
Smartphone users have the opportunity to have a higher level of awareness for the
location where they are located. A traveler should also know there are ways to schedule
a trip to avoid bad weather, and there are suggestions about predictability of tornados,
hurricanes, and blizzards, included in the following report.
Hurricanes that threaten New England can be spotted
many days in advance up to and over a week. The last
hurricane that officially hit New England was hurricane Bob
back in 1991. New England has not been hit directly by a
hurricane in 22 years. There have been tropical storms that
have been pretty bad like Irene. And recently Hurricane
Sandy was side swiped the area. Sandy mostly went into
New York and New Jersey. Sandy was not even a Hurricane
technically when it arrived because it had weakened.
The last major hurricane that hit was in 1954 Hurricane Carol. That was a
category 3. The average return period for major hurricanes is 59 years. Coincidentally it
has been 59 years. Right now is right at the average for a major Hurricane. It does not
mean that New England is going to get hit this year or the year after, but that average
return period of a major Hurricane could occur sometime soon.
About the hurricane image. Some major storms sometimes have a star shape in
the center of the system which is why it is added here. Not many symbols that represent
a hurricane will have this shape included at its center.
Springfield Tornado and Helpful Tornado Information
A major tornado can be expected every ten to fifteen years. A major hurricane
comes roughly every 50 to 60 years, meaning a category 3 or more.
Massachusetts recently had an EF3. This is the new
tornado ranking. It used to be the F scale (Fujita scale),
now it is the EF Scale (Enhanced Fujita Scale). This recent
EF 3 tornado went through a few cities to include Westfield,
and Springfield, Massachusetts. The tornado also traveled
east from there to a town called Monson. It was on the
ground for 38 miles. This was on June 1, 2011. The
tornado’s wind and debris killed a total of three people
along its route. The tornado was on the ground for 38
miles. It was very, very, lucky, that many more lives were not lost. It was actually in the
city of Springfield, a larger city in Massachusetts, it crossed the river, and where it
crossed was far enough from where there was a whole row of cars at rush hour at a
bridge. Had it been just south it could have sucked all those cars into the river. That
would have been pretty bad. It is very fortunate actually, of where the tornado went. It
was not like the Midwest where you can see a tornado coming from miles and miles and
get a half an hour lead-time warning. But this storm out in the Springfield area
developed just west of there. There was really no warning time when the tornado was in
Springfield. When it got out to the city of Monson they had 45 minutes of warning time.
The people in Monson and Brimfield had some
extra advanced warning time. They also had the
ability to see it on television before it reached
them, and most had gotten the warning on the
weather radio, or off any of the news stations.
They had a total of 45 minutes to evacuate to a
storm shelter.
Historically, tornados have been
remembered and recorded by the National
Weather Service – Boston/Taunton,
Massachusetts. Back the 1950s was the famous
Worcester tornado. At that time tornados were on
the F scale, and that one was an F 4 tornado. The Worcester tornado killed 94 people,
injuring 1226 people. That was before weather radar took effect. But the point is really
big tornados happen in New England enough to be a public and traveling issue and
concern.
Blizzard Warnings
Winter storms happen
every winter in New England. Big
blizzards are modeled to happen every 3 to 5 years for a northeastern snow storm. A
traveler should know how much of a warning is available for blizzard winter storms.
Compared to tornados and hurricanes blizzards are a different type of warning. Those
are obvious types of warnings where they will usually start out with a watch. This watch
is 2-3 days ahead of the estimated time of arrival of the storm. It is upgraded to a
warning 24 to 36 hours ahead of the storms estimated arrival time. The media is all over
that as well. Winter weather can be pretty bad, we had the blizzard of 1978. We had a
blizzard of 2013 in February. This region can get 30 inches in one big dumping.
Blizzards have some pretty bad winds obstructing visibility as well.
Know the time of Year to Watch for Possible Severe Weather Threats
If you are traveling in the late summer early fall. Particularly August, September,
and October, if you are out on Cape cod which is a famous destination. Or on an Island
which is Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket you need to be concerned for severe
weather warnings, and hurricanes. Be aware that for certain popular tourist destinations
there are also certain issues in those areas that a visitor may not be aware of. This is
something to know in order to plan and make sure to evacuate at the right time. For that
area visitors are dependent upon ferries for transportation from the island to the
mainland. Make sure to avoid being stranded, a hurricane for that time of year is a
possibility.
Recommended Ways to get Weather Information
Wireless Emergency Alerts
The new nationwide thing is the Wireless Emergency Alerts, or WEA. The WEA
is communicated on Smartphones to the user. It is automatically programmed as a
function on a Smartphone. A Smartphone user does not have to do anything to sign up
for the alert it is automatically enabled and is not an application a user would have to
find. Wireless Emergency Alerts are on the phone from purchase. The alerts will stay on
the phone as long as the phone is used in a safe and secure way.
These alerts are able to communicate a few of the more unpredictable weather
threats. Tornado and flash flood warnings now automatically appear on phones. Some
types of weather will not be communicated, for example the many severe thunderstorms
nation wide. There are so many thunderstorms the management of what to
communicate and not to communicate decided to narrow down the alerts. Tornado
warnings and flash flood warnings will automatically appear.
In New England an alert was communicated this summer. There was a weak
tornado in Connecticut. NOAA issued the WEA for a tornado. The use of the WEA here
was a great success story. Two managers of a
sports athletic dome got the WEA tornado
message on their cell phones two minutes before
the tornado event. The managers saved 29
children, with 3 adults, evacuating them to a place
of safety. This all happened two minutes before
the roof of the dome flew off and was blown
across Interstate 91. The evacuation would have
never happened if it was not for the wireless
emergency alert. The ability to communicate the
current weather conditions and threats like this
example can prevent damage, injury, and
fatalities. That is one of the advantages of the new Smartphone thing, communicating
the wireless alerts about the weather. What happens is if you are moving into an area
with a warning polygon. A traveler will know if he or she is in an area within or near a
cell phone tower, that cell phone tower will broadcast the warning message every 5
minutes.
When someone new is driving into the severe weather area, they will get that
message every 5 minutes. If you acknowledge it once on your phone you will not get it
again. If you are in the same area for the same warning. The advantage of those alerts
are more precise as a result of a person’s exact proximity to the storm. They have it for
drivers that are driving through severe weather.
NOAA Websites
There is a webpage you can check it is just weather.gov/Boston. And that covers
the whole state. It covers Southern New England to include: Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, and most of Connecticut.
The more broad source of NOAA weather news is at Weather.gov. Weather.gov
has a map of the whole country there, and you can click on any state you want and it
will take you there to view that areas weather forecast information. The forecast office
with responsibility in that area will popup and then a viewer can go to that individual
website as well.
NOAA Radio
Another good thing especially if you are traveling is to have a weather radio. If
you find the weather broadcast on the scanner you can pick it up. Or you can buy a
separate radio from your favorite electronics outlet. The National Weather Service
broadcasts on several different frequencies. Broadcasts range from 162.4 to 162.55
MHz, and it is a 24 hour broadcast. Wherever travelers are in New England there is
bound to be a weather broadcast.
Cars and Weather Radios
Only a few automotive manufacturers in the industry have weather radios
installed and ready for use at the time of purchase. With all the tickets and safety
requirements travelers are not really required to know anything about the weather
unless being informed during a specific event at a checkpoint controlled by Law
Enforcement or the Department of Transportation. A mandatory weather radio would be
a great to have. A weather radio in your car when traveling in a region of a storm can
really communicate the level of severity. BMW and some other brands do have radios in
their cars. Some other cars that come with weather radios are Subaru, Mercedes,
Range Rover, and SAAB. For the care that do not have a radio it is kind of a thing of the
past with the new Smartphone but a portable radio can be the solution if one is required.