WICS meteorologist Joe Crain criticizes Sinclair's 'Code Red' alerts - Sensationalist Headlines

https://herald-review.com/entertainment/tv/wics-meteorologist-joe-crain-criticizes-code-red-alerts/article_c9c5e4f6-d935-5adf-a2f9-76143e9faf1f.html Joe Crain, a longtime meteorologist on WICS-TV in Springfield, gave on-air criticism Wednesday of the station's "Code Red" weather warning system, saying it is a "corporate initiative" that "doesn't recognize that not all storms are equal" and has generated widespread complaints. "So we want you to know it's not us," Crain said during a morning broadcast on a day that actually would see severe weather later. "This is a corporate initiative, the Code Red alert. And behind the scenes, many of us have tried to dissuade it for the last few months, to try something else that's less controversial to the viewers." Rick Lipps, general manager of the Sinclair Broadcast Group station, didn't immediately return messages asking about Crain's status. And reached through Facebook, Crain on Thursday morning said, "I'm employed by WICS and have no comment to offer." Crain, who has been at Channel 20 since 2004 and is the longest-tenured on-air personality at the Springfield station, did not appear on air during Thursday morning's news shows on WICS and his picture had been removed from the staff biography page on the Channel 20 website by Thursday afternoon. Got this off Reddit, Remember Sinclair everyone? Here's the video, Sinclair is on damage control so watch it before they remove it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8BklIQX0d8&t=41s

Are they sensationalizing the weather? Damn that's desperate

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0MF345T3GX8

Noticed this on other news programs. ABC World News for example has a slot for ANY weather system passing by in the US like its a super storm.

I'm honestly surprised they aren't blaming gay people for the weather, given their track record.

In the states, especially the last few years, they REALLY ham up and sensationalize the weather. I don't know what it is but they try to compete with each other to try and prove how bad it is in an area. It's completely fucking ridiculous Excuse the quality but here's a classic example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgm3_jzcNm4

So they figure out on bad weather days people panic buy water, bread, and other basics. Specially in tornado prone areas, so instead of utilizing the models we have and giving us a all-around outlook they want to use a buzzword which will cause people to panic. How wonderful.

Up front, didn't read the article because I got a big ole "disable ad blocker or subscribe" pop up, and well...fuck that. Did watch the video and I don't really agree with him. Yes, the NWS has handy dandy maps people can look at, but how many people can actually translate the information? They rely on meteorologists for that. But I'unno. I don't exactly see the issue? Then again, I grew up in an area with frequent severe weather (Tornado alley, yeehaw), so I just immediately see it as "ok, shit could get wild, better make sure my bug out bag is ready." However, I can see the merit of doing a wide spread "code red" alert. Why? During one of these last rounds of storms, all of the severe weather was supposed to stay out in western Oklahoma/the panhandle. I'm in central Oklahoma and was only under a thunderstorm watch, so I had no reason to keep an eye on the weather. Imagine my damn surprise when a short lived tornado dropped about two miles to my northwest at close to 11 at night (Suddenly sirens!). This same storm steamrolled its way to eastern Oklahoma where it spawned three simultaneous tornado warnings in different parts of the storm about an hour later. Again, this area was not supposed to experience anything beyond thunderstorms, meaning a whole bunch of people, including my parents, got caught with their metaphorical pants down. The warning that dropped over my parents was attempting to spawn a tornado that later touched down a few miles to the east where it briefly lifted, touched back down in Sapulpa, then skipped it's way to the northeast into Tulsa/Broken Arrow. As far as sensationalizing the news? Part of that is because of the idiots who'll go "Oh, it ain't too bad", go out in the snow storms or ice storms, and get themselves stuck/killed. If the news doesn't sensationalize it enough and it ends up being worse? Well, they get shit for that, too. I just see the "code red" indication as "Hey, shit could get wild. Make sure you have all your stuff prepped." Shit might happen, it might not...But I always think it's better to be prepared and the only thing I see all day is a cloud that couldn't fart if it wanted to.

right wing media overhyping and fearmongering? say it ain't so!

If you live in an area that is affected by tornados or other dangerous weather and you have not taken the time to understand a basic color scheme and number system that is on the person. I live in Tornado Alley and if you cannot understand this little chart then I dunno what to tell people. I'm not even from this part and when I moved here I took the time to learn it. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/230446/097a2300-689f-43a7-a2c3-86ddbb18e075/image.png Weather can change at any moment, that same storm you are talking about is the one that was supposed to drop a monster tornado on my city. The storm cell ended up skirting pass my city and pounded the shit out of oklahoma. Code red is sensonalist, unneeded, and unwarranted. There are plenty of other indexes which are used in combination of other weather models. The NWS already pushes out notifications and alerts as they issue them. If you have a local news app they push out the exact same notifications. Why do we need another system? Second of all, we don't need a system that isn't controlled by anyone credible. NWS, NOAA, storm chasers, and local meteorologists seem to have it covered. This is the big issue "Of course, the Code Red weather alert is designed to give an early heads up well before any watches or warnings are issued, to give you the opportunity to plan, prepare and protect your family against strong to severe thunder storms," Crain said. "That being said, it's not the perfect solution because, of course, with Code Red, it's all inclusive. It doesn't recognize that not all storms are created equal." It is issuing ALERTS for shit that hasn't even been verified or issued by NWS. I see a problem with that.

Really though it's because Code Red gets people's attention. It won't be long until they start looking for excuses to say Code Red just before every commercial break

It's been going on for a long time. Weather.com was particularly egregious about it, to where this joke image was far less of an exaggeration than you'd think. https://external-preview.redd.it/uEyRSLk8kLvxIUJN_JtSTWTeUpoU82Bm85vJDMY5jzQ.jpg?width=1024&auto=webp&s=9e792f0582f13e73eaf4d7fb07b32aca85a615d2

I live in campus housing. Many of the students here aren't from Oklahoma, some aren't even from the US and aren't going to really understand the weather in this area. You're also ignoring the horribly high levels of illiteracy in the state. A good 30% of the population is barely literate, having meteorologists verbally explaining what's going on is essential. As far as "It is issuing ALERTS for shit that hasn't even been verified or issued by NWS." goes? That...Literally happens all the time via News 9/News 6. They issue station predicted tornadoes based on their own judgement, radar data, and spotters. Usually a good few minutes before the NWS calls it.

The news goes off of weather models that are released to meteorologists, some of the models are released to the public, the models are translated by a meteorologists for local weather coverage. Storm chasers only visually confirm weather events such as tornado, tornados warnings and be issued based on radar but storm chasers actually confirm and verify damage. The news are not making shit up as they go, they're using models and using official data. Also if a group of college kids can't do basic research and adjust to the new place they live then they're going to have a hard time surviving college. I get the there are people who are illiterate but there are plenty of early warning systems in place that already work. Code red is just another advertisement scam to fucking scare people. The fact they had to fire a meteorologist who criticize it just shows how much of a scam it is.

Aired in 2000, satirizing sensationalist reporting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu6PLxeVslA

The NWS doesn't confirm tornados until they have their surveyors go out and assess the damage to get an idea of how powerful the winds were so they can give an accurate EF rating. Unless you have a visibly obvious tornado on camera they're not going to confirm anything. Tornado watches are issued by the NWS in advance of a storm that has potential to produce Tornados. Tornado warnings are issued by the NWS via radar indicated rotations. Which aren't always Tornados but can be. The TV channels don't issue anything. Using systems that aren't official is confusing and should always have ***UNOFFICIAL*** tags on them. Even professionally generated forecasts map have warnings not to use the information to make plans and to seek official reports.

Meanwhile, News 9 is always going "You heard it here first, a News 9 issued tornado warning" and it's always based off of what they're seeing on radar/via the spotters. They like calling warnings before the NWS. News 6 does the same thing and has for years. These aren't college kids. These are 20+ years old who are going for a professional level degree (I'm fourth year pharmacy, for example). Few years back, I was talking to a woman in her early 30s from Canada who honestly had no idea what to do and that she'd have to get to the lower level of the 3rd story apartment building she lived in. Hell, it never fails that every summer when the incoming students get here, there's a few panicking when the Saturday noon siren test goes off. Also, did you miss last month where all the news channels were talking about how one day was going to be a "significant weather event day"? Different words, same thing as "code red alert".

My favorite one is how the Weather Channel started naming Winter storms like we do for tropical Cyclones which is definitely not an official thing either, and lots of people have talked against it. They want you to feel like every storm is the next big one.

The Weather Channel has been doing it since at least 2011; it's been like that for a while.

That's a lot closer to official terminology than CODE RED. What does Code Red mean? How is it defined? Do you say Code Red when there's a tornado on the ground? Do you say it when there's a bad thunderstorm? It means nothing and it's not helpful except to scare. When you over use scare words they begin to mean nothing. The NWS has three Tornado advisories. Watch, Warning, and Emergency. Do you know why you rarely hear about a Tornado Emergency? Because it means there's a tornado on the ground in a populated area right now. It's designed to be rare so when you hear it you know it's important. If we called everything a Tornado Emergency from the start to scare people into watching the news they would eventually stop caring. And they would die. Weather apathy is a thing and half the battle of saving people's lives is getting them to listen and care. People get pissed when they shut off The Bachelor to talk about Tornado warnings because It will never happen to me! mentality. People go to the beach and have hurricane parties because the last hurricane was not as strong as they said. These get people killed. Weather reporting needs to be clear, standardized, official, and free of hyperbole. The NWS SPC uses a set of standardized and defined words to produce their outlooks. This was for the tornado outbreak that thankfully wasn't as bad as it could've been: Storm Prediction Center May 20, 2019 1630 UTC Day 1 Convective O.. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/archive/2019/day1probotlk_20190520_1630_torn_prt.gif Day 1 Convective Outlook NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK 1126 AM CDT Mon May 20 2019 Valid 201630Z - 211200Z ...THERE IS A HIGH RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FROM PARTS OF NORTHWEST TEXAS AND THE EASTERN TEXAS PANHANDLE TO WESTERN AND CENTRAL OKLAHOMA... ...THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS OVER PARTS OF EASTERN NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND... ...SUMMARY... An outbreak of tornadoes, some potentially long-track and violent, is expected today into this evening over portions of northwest Texas into western and central Oklahoma. More isolated but still potentially dangerous severe weather, including tornadoes and destructive winds and hail, is possible in surrounding parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. It's simple and easy to read if you take the time. It's easy for meteorologists to explain if need be. https://twitter.com/mattlanza/status/1130500973305180161?s=19 When the NWS is using words like Violent, it's supposed to make you say oh shit this might be serious. If we have the news saying "watch out today is expected to be a Category 10 Weatherpocalyse™ brought to you by our Sponsor Coca-Cola ™ " it stops losing meaning.