Accuweather seeks opportunity in Tuesday’s weather disaster
Here’s their headline on an article released yesterday:
” Precise AccuWeather Forecast in Deadly Severe Weather Outbreak”
Here’s what they claim:
“Beginning on Monday, the free AccuWeather.com website correctly warned users in the Memphis area of “Severe thunderstorms (which) can bring downpours, large hail, damaging winds, and a tornado (Tuesday night).” Other popular forecasting web sites were calling only for strong storms, even as Memphis was hit by a tornado.”
Their claim that other “Popular” websites were just calling for storms is just absolute BS. The Storm Prediction Center has that area highlighted in its’ 4-8 day outlook for severe weather and had the area in a first moderate, then high risk for severe weather.
Here’s another blatant lie on Accuweather’s part:
“AccuWeather pinpoint-accurate forecasts for numerous business clients, including one manufacturing plant north of Oxford, Miss. Two tornado warnings had been issued by the National Weather Service for parts of the county, but none for the area of the plant itself. AccuWeather.com correctly warned their client that the manufacturing plant would be hit by a tornado between 5:50 p.m. and 6:15 p.m”
Here’s the tornado warning for that area:
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN
541 PM CST TUE FEB 5 2008
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MEMPHIS HAS ISSUED A
* TORNADO WARNING FOR…
SOUTHWESTERN LAFAYETTE COUNTY IN NORTHWEST MISSISSIPPI…
* UNTIL 600 PM CST
* AT 541 PM CST…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM PRODUCING A TORNADO 7 MILES WEST OF
SPRINGDALE…OR ABOUT 6 MILES WEST OF WATER VALLEY…MOVING
NORTHEAST AT 50 MPH.
* OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO
OXFORD.
The plant was covered by a warning yet Accuweather just lies about it. It’s no secret that they hate the NWS and the Storm Prediction Center but this is a new low.
UriShare - Accuweather lies about super tuesday tornado event said,
February 8, 2008 @ 10:13 am
[…] Accuweather lies about super tuesday tornado event I find it reprehensible that this organization/company would post a so called pat on the back statement regarding this weekâ
Meteorologist said,
February 8, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
Does accuweather think people are really paying attention to their comments? As long as accuweather does not have legal liability to the general public for taxpayer warning services for the protection of life and property, they can sit back and arm chair quarter back, and claim they are the latest and greatest since sliced bread. But, since they’ll never assume the legal liability for missing a warning for the general population, their claims hold little water and has little weight. They can talk a good game, as long as they aren’t legally liable for missed warning services to the taxpayers. I don’t think they want to be sued every other event for missing warnings. It’s much different taking on the govt. vs taking on accuweather. Oh, do they ever mention they are using NWS govt. fed data via NWS/NOAA radars, satellite, and numerical and graphical model output? I guess the govt. could shut those off for a while and see how far they get with their “more than perfect” forecasting services. The NWS has good partnerships with many media outlets. Why do they have to be such a pain in the rump? Must be coming from the top there. Who’s one of their guys again? Bastard(i)?