By Melissa Ingells, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-970476.mp3
East Lansing, MI – The news continues to be bad out of Joplin, Missouri, after a huge tornado went right through the middle of town. News reports refer to it being the worst tornado in 50 years. WKAR's Melissa Ingells speaks with MSU associate professor Jeffrey Andresen about the tornado that previously held the record for fatalities.
AUDIO:
JEFF ANDRESEN: There is a Michigan connection, with tragic events, and statistics that, well, they're sometimes difficult to look at. But the Joplin tornado now holds the distinction of having the worst, the greatest loss of life, with any single tornado event, at least with modern record-keeping which goes back to 1950. The previous record for loss of life was associated with the Flint-Beecher tornado of June 8th, 1953, in which 116 people lost their life. And again, we, this tornado was a particularly violent one, it was an F5, the most intense of any, and these are very, very rare type events. But it's also a reminder that we don't see as many tornadoes as other parts of the U.S., but certainly that it has happened before. There actually have been two F5 tornadoes in the last 50 years in Michigan, one in Allegan County and then one, the Flint-Beecher tornado. But the loss of life in the Flint-Beecher event was particularly high because the tornado moved through a populated area. And in the case of Joplin, this is, there's no question that that was, directly associated. A tornado formed almost right over Joplin and moved through, right through the middle of town. And of course we've all seen footage of the images there. Very, very incredibly destructive and again, many people lost their life. And that's despite being warned. The lead time was thought to be almost 20 minutes before the storm actually hit.
MELISSA INGELLS: Which, my understanding is, that's outstanding and way better than it used to be before Doppler radar.
ANDRESEN: It is, that's an incredible, it's part of the technology but it also goes to show that it probably could have been much, much worse, as hard to believe as that is, without the warning. But 20 minutes lead time for most people is enough to get to a place to safety, a real safety.
INGELLS: Do you think that part of what plays into the severity of it is that, you know, if you live in Kansas, you're used to the drill. But if you're in Joplin, or in Michigan for instance, you may not take it as seriously because it doesn't happen as often?
ANDRESEN: There probably is some of that. I guess if you live in Oklahoma, which is really the bull's-eye, there probably is some maybe loss of sensitivity over time, because it is relatively frequent there, versus a place like Michigan. We certainly do see severe weather here, but not nearly as much. We could say the same thing maybe about parts of the East. But the point remains, that severe weather has occurred here in the past, some of it violent severe weather, and it very likely will again. So, we still have to keep that in mind, that it is maybe not as likely but it still is a possibility, and we have to take those watches and warnings seriously.
INGELLS: It sounds like forecasting and the tools available have changed pretty significantly since the 50s. In fact a couple of sidebar stories I saw, I think, on the CNN website said you weren't even supposed to use the word "tornado" back then.
ANDRESEN: Right. It was, well, back in the 50's, obviously people knew about tornadoes. Forecasting them and the understanding of tornadoes, how they formed and how they occurred, was still relative in its infancy. The National Weather service, or its predecessor then at that point, the Weather Bureau, in the 1950s was essentially taking observations. The strategy was at that point to basically try to get a spotter, somebody to observe it, report it, so it could be relayed to law enforcement or to civil defense, that type of organization, so people could be warned. And so, people had to wait until the severe weather actually was occurring before other people could be warned. Now, that has since changed with the advent of Doppler radar technology, which came about in the 1980s, and now is standard equipment. And that allows meteorologists to really, to see the formation of thunderstorms, of parent thunderstorms which may become tornadic, many times tens of minutes, or like Joplin, before the tornado actually takes place or forms and hits the ground. But still, as we saw here on Sunday, there still, even with these warnings, because of the violence, because of the magnitude of these types of events, it still can have major impacts on a given area.