Category: Hodgepodge
High Honors; A Big Thank You
Tonight I accepted the American Meteorological Society “Award for Broadcast Meteorology” at the AMS annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Bernie Rayno of AccuWeather snapped this shot from his table…
I also received the other major national award for a broadcast meteorologist, the National Weather Association “Broadcaster of the Year” award back in October at the NWA annual meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.
The AMS and NWA are the two professional societies for meteorologists.
As a young TV weather anchor, I never dreamed I would have a chance at winning one of these. Winning both back to back is beyond belief.
Thanks to those who nominated me, and wrote letters of support.
On April 27, 2011, 252 Alabamians died on my watch during a generational tornado outbreak. That is simply inexcusable. I thought the death toll should have been close to 30. The warnings that day were excellent, and we thought the coverage was comprehensive and reached all people groups across multiple platforms. But, so many died. Precious people. Little boys and girls, moms, dads, senior adults, people of wealth, and those with low income. The number 252 will be etched in my mind for the rest of my life.
I learned after that event I am not as good as I think, and, across the weather enterprise, we are not as good as we think. Humility is missing in our science. There is so much we don’t know, and many things we can’t do. So much to learn. We must focus on getting better, not only in the physical science aspect, but also on the social science side. All of my energy for the rest of my career will be spent on making the warning process better. That is my focus.
But, I do understand there comes a time when we celebrate the lives that were saved April 27, 2011 by the warning process. I have heard the stories, and know that many are alive today thanks to their action based on hearing an urgent tornado emergency message on ABC 33/40, through one of our radio partners, or on Twitter or Facebook. I can’t help but wonder how many went to shelter after seeing one of those 62 tornadoes on our SKYCAM network, or on a live stream by heroes in the field like John Brown, Mike Wilhelm, John Oldshue, Ben Greer, or Terry Sasser on that day.
The point of this message tonight is to thank those who support my work. The men and women in academia that teach, nurture, encourage, and train, researchers that bring remarkable technology to the table, and those that work at NOAA units like the Storm Prediction Center, or local National Weather Service offices like the ones in Birmingham and Huntsville. Many in the weather community have worked long, hard hours for many years to make the warnings better. These awards with my name on them are an extension of the work of multitudes of people.
A sincere thank you to all.
Unspeakable
I am not a journalist, and have never claimed to be one. My first major in college was electrical engineering, and finished in the meteorology program at Mississippi State. I can’t imagine having to cover a story like the one today at the elementary school in Connecticut. These are just some thoughts I needed to write down after what happened earlier today.
I heard of today’s massacre as I walked out of an elementary school. You see, I am in an elementary school almost every day during the school year doing science programs, unless I have a hospital board meeting, function involving ABC 33/40, or something else I have to do. I understand the culture inside elementary schools better than most. I have worked in children’s ministry for 25 years; I lead children’s worship Sundays at a Shelby County church.
*TEACHERS ARE HEROES. I would imagine many lost their lives today at the school in Connecticut today trying to protect the lives of those children under their watch. These men and women perform a thankless job; every single day they are not only teaching kids, but also protecting and nurturing them. You would not believe the number of kids that are hurting in our schools; so many of our families are in crisis and the teachers are often the glue that holds the life of a child together. Their encouragement, protection, and discipline are important beyond words. Teachers are hard workers, determined, brave, and they are motivated by the love for these kids. We don’t thank them enough. My mom was a teacher.
*THIS CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE: While I was doing a weather program at a local school last school year, a “code red” alarm sounded. This is a case where a likely gunman is inside the school building, and the kids and teachers are instructed to turn out the lights and literally hide without making a sound. Sure, I know it was most likely a drill, but for a few fleeting moments my mind wondered… what if this was the real deal. I have lived a long, good, blessed life, and it really didn’t matter if it was the last day for me, but I thought about the teachers and kids huddled up in that room. I heard a single person walking down the vacant hallway, and for the first time in many years I actually felt fear. When I peeked out the window and saw it was a Hoover police officer, I almost wanted to hug him.
But, this experience reminded me this CAN happen anywhere, and no security system is fool proof.
*STOP THE POLITICAL FOOLISHNESS ON DAYS LIKE THIS: I don’t care if you are liberal, conservative, or anything else. On the day of a humanitarian disaster NOBODY should be spouting political hate on either side. Give it a break. Please.
*LIFE IS SHORT: Every day is a gift. We should celebrate each day instead of whining, moaning, and complaining. Sure, we all have problems, but if you are alive and reading this, you are blessed. Hug your kids and tell them you believe in them and love them. You might not have tomorrow for encouraging words.
*WE ARE LOSING OUR WAY: First indications are that the gunman perhaps had some type of mental disorder, but one way or another I sure get the idea our nation is slowing losing the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. There is absolute truth, and life is truly precious. We must turn away from evil.
I have two videos below. One is the raw KIDCAM video today from Elvin Hill Elementary; right after this was recorded I walked to my car to hear of the horrible situation in Connecticut. As this KIDCAM video was being recorded, the kids were being shot in Connecticut. I would imagine many of those who died were this age… these kids are 5 and 6 years old. The second video is a reminder of the great hope we have at this time of the year… this video is by some of the children under my watch at Double Oak Community Church.
Let’s pray for our nation tonight.
What Christmas Is All About from James Spann on Vimeo.
Facebook: Not A Good Severe Weather Platform
Yep, I know… the world lives on Facebook, and I spend long hours there pushing weather information. But, quite frankly, it is a horrible way of disseminating severe weather information. Here is why…
*FACEBOOK “LIKE PAGE”: I am honored to have over 107,000 people “liking me”. I don’t think more than 5 people “liked me” in high school. You can find the “like page” here.
For a few years, I posted all Alabama severe weather warnings here, with the idea that over 100,000 people would be seeing them. After some investigation, I learned only a FRACTION of those people actually saw the warnings in their news feed. It is just the way Facebook works; 10 to 15 percent see it, and that is all. I can pay Facebook some cash to get that figure up a bit, but even then most still will never see the warnings. I started getting this message recently…
Unacceptable for a reliable severe weather warning platform, needless to say. I am all for Facebook making money, but my job is getting severe weather warnings to people, and this is a disaster.
*FACEBOOK REGULAR ACCOUNT: In an effort to work around this, I have encouraged the 107,000 people on the like page to come over and subscribe to my regular account. Of course, I only reach a fraction of the 107,000 people when I ask them to do this. And, the process is very confusing.
So far, over 67,000 have come over and subscribed…
First off, most come over and try the “friend request”. They are told I have “too many friends” since the Facebook limit is 5,000. You have to “subscribe”, which is almost impossible to do on a phone or tablet, which is how much people access Facebook. You really need to be on a computer to do this. And, then, to be sure you get the warnings, you have to opt in and go through a series of hoops to be sure all of my posts show up in your newsfeed.
TWITTER: If you want to use social media to get warnings, Twitter is the most reliable and widely used platform for now. You can get all Alabama warnings on our @ewarn account, and I put most warnings on my personal account as well… @spann.
GOOGLE PLUS: Honestly, this is the best platform for severe weather… we just have to get more people over there. Google’s social network is reliable, fast, and made for mass distribution of weather information like severe weather warnings. You can find my personal account here…. come over and join us. Their mobile apps are second to none.
But, yes, I know most won’t get away from Facebook for now, but please don’t make that your exclusive way of getting severe weather warnings….
Small Quake North of Birmingham
Late update… USGS has deleted this event after a review by a seismologist… Seems like it was related to mining.
Steve Jones… Our quake expert…
A small magnitude 2.5 earthquake was registered by the USGS earlier this morning at 16:01:05 UTC (10:01:05 am CST), in Alabama, east of the city of Jasper in extreme northern Jefferson County, at a location approximately 103 km (64 mi) from Huntsville. The quake focus was located at a depth of 1 km (0.6 mi). There have been no reports of damages or injuries from the quake.
In Huntsville, the initial P (pressure) seismic body wave arrival was seen approximately 20 seconds after the quake occurred, and the S (shear) body waves began to arrive at approximately +31 seconds. The slower-traveling surface waves began to arrive about 36 seconds after the quake occurred, peaking with a maximum vertical ground movement of approximately 651 nanometers (nm) seen at the AlabamaQuake seismic station.
The local seismogram and earthquake epicenter location map have been posted at the AlabamaQuake website (http://alabamaquake.com) on the “Huntsville Seismograms” and “Recent Earthquake Maps” pages, and have also been attached to this message.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments by posting an update on the AlabamaQuake discussion blog at http://www.facebook.com/alabamaquake.
Small Walker County Quake This Morning
From Steve Jones… our earthquake expert…
A small magnitude 2.6 earthquake was registered earlier today at 15:20:10 UTC (9:20:10 am CST) in Alabama, at a location northwest of Birmingham, approximately 129 km (80 mi) from Huntsville. The quake focus was located at a depth of 1 km (0.6 mi) underground. There were no immediate reports of damages in the local area.
In Huntsville, the initial P (pressure) seismic body waves began to arrive some 12 seconds after the quake occurred, and the initial S (shear) body waves were seen at approximately +37 seconds. A phase of surface waves was seen to arrive beginning about 46 seconds after the quake, peaking at +51 seconds with a maximum vertical ground movement of approximately 144 micrometers (um) measured at the AlabamaQuake seismic station.
The local seismogram and earthquake epicenter location map have been posted at the AlabamaQuake website (http://alabamaquake.com) on the “Huntsville Seismograms” and “Recent Earthquake Maps” pages, and have also been attached to this message.
