Omaha Storm Coverage
Were you watching KETV meteorologist Bill Randby Chuck McWilliams (Editor's correction) overnight when the storm struck the Omaha area? Or did you tune in to coverage on the radio by KFAB (1110 AM) or another station?
Sunday, June 8, 2008
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321 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 321 of 321Thank God this storm hit before Jim's bedtime.
Something is wrong with WOWT's radar. It is showing most of the area having green or light storms the other stations are showing massive areas of severe storms.
There is a clear hook of red severe near Plattsmouth on KETV and KMTV's radar on WOWT it shows up as light green and you can barely see the hook.
Yeah, Channel 6 TOTALLY redeemed themselves. Why, at 6:30 p.m., Tracy Madden reassured us they had Jim Flowers on the radar, Justin "Pee Wee Herman" Joseph chasing the storm, John Knicely "working the phones" and, I'm not making this up, a storm chaser named Kenny phoning in reports. I'm not sure which was scarier -- the thought of Knicely trying to figure out how to "work" the phones (producer: "No, John, you dial "9" to get out of the building and 1 for long distance) OR the fact that they've been reduced to relying on some guy named Kenny for storm reports.
Yep. The Weather Authority is back, alright.
I don't need any hook echo's.... I wear a flower on my lapel!!!
Looks like I will get out of here on time tonight....WoooHoooo!
-Jimbo
Now WOWT's radar seems to be frozen
6:21 is right WOWT is ridiculous. They only have one meteorologist in, a non working radar, only one reporter and a storm chaser in the field.
KETV has 3 meteorologists working, a working radar, at least three reporter photog teams out, plus another photojournalist on his own and several chasers.
WOWT now has the NWS radar from valley back up so they have something on air. i guess they keep their radar at Crown Point turned off since it doesn't work, truly the "Weather Authority"
If you hear thunder GO TO THE BASEMENT.... IT IS THE APOCALYPSE. Stay tuned to THE WEATHER AUTHORITY
P.S I have almost finished off my bottle of Jack
-Jimbo
Yep. WOWT is really on the ball. I switched over to them for just a moment. And it was classic WOWT. Jim Flowers says "We have reporter Gary Smollen reporting LIVE from Midtown!" And Gary Smollen says something like, "Yes, Jim. I just stuck my head outside my front door here at home and we have pea-sized hail". Yeah, thanks for taking the time to poke your head out the door of your house.
Like I said, the essence of WOWT captured in a matter of seconds.
It is odd on channel 6 the line that represents the radar antenna keeps sweeping by but the image does not update, i wonder what is going on.
Also, they are not talking about the current storms Jim was reminiscing about the last tornado that caused fatalities and they keep putting up a full screen graphic about the boy scout camp that does not have anything new on it.
Their storm chaser was classic, I'm in a tornado as we speak, my car is rocking (as a car drives by in his picture). Uh, yeah, you are in a tornado...
KETV is the first to feed back video from the boy scout camp just now.
What is particularly fascinating is the techno-babble happening on the phone between Jim Flowers and Kenny the Storm Chaser.
What was particularly funny was Jim Flowers, "the heartland's most experienced meteorologist", mind you, asking Kenny the Storm Chaser if its rare to see multiple rain-wrapped tornadoes.
They also need to get an intern or something into the Channel 6 weather center. Maybe just a temporary secretary from an agency to help Jimbo pull print-outs off the printer.
A little while ago he was grumbling about "Its hard to wade through all the tornado warnings to get to the one you were asking about"
Imagine how grumpy he's going to be if this severe weather has the gall to go past 10:30.
What is Channel 3 thinking they are doing phone interviews with people about the boy scout camp. These are not people who are there or have info about the tragedy but have been there in the past. Carlos is asking stupid questions. They are ignoring the storms which are still producing tornadoes.
I do want to say that Tracy Madden does do a good job in these types of situations. She is surrounded by those dunder-heads John Kniceley and Jim Flowers who utter four "ums" and "uhs" for every normal word that comes out of their mouths.
But she is clear and concise and doesn't go off on babbling tangents. I think she is one of the few bright spots at an other numbskull station.
watching the coverage at the moment of the tornados. i dont live in omaha (or even close to it) but i would like to say something. when i read a comment about there being storm coverage in/ "GENOA!!!!", I was pissed. you people in omaha think you are all that and that those towns that arent omaha mean nothing. people also live there. if this kinda storming would have been going on in a place other than omaha, you would be watching regular programing right now rather than incessant broadcasting.
now
ketv is doing a nice job about keeping a balance between storm coverage and the tragedy in little sioux. pray for them
oh and did kptm get knocked off the air for a while? kxvo was off too
lol. when msnbc starts quoting from the abc affiliate ketv, that tells you all you need to know about wowt's ability to provide coverage
CNN is using KETV video of ambulances coming and going at the camp.
you guys are kinda funny...heh
you guys are kinda funny...heh
Did anyone catch Channel 6 having to note a million times that a trained weather spotter of 10 years was caught in a tornado tonight?
The tornado sirens going off and on was a little annoying, but at least it's better than after the fact like last time.
I have a great aunt that lives in the Moorehead area. I hope she's okay.
I will head down to Moorehead to "document the storm." Let me know your great aunt's name and I will see if I notice her as I drive by and snap shots.
that last comment was a little rude
Earlier channel 6 made a big deal of reporting that in contrast to earlier reports only six were injured at the camp, not it is clear they were extremely wrong.
Very, very good interview on Action 3 by Michelle Bandure with a teenager that witnessed some kids that got hurt and killed. This weather situation is getting ridiculous.
KETV is the only one taking the camp tragedy presser live.
Is Knicely reading this blog on that laptop he has in front of him?
Wow, what a bunch of twits and haters on the line. I actually thought the stuff from Kenny was pretty good.
The press conference 7 ran was bizarre. Some old guy looking confused with no information.Strange
That guy on the press conference didn't know shit. Good move by 3 & 6 to ignore it.
8:52 --
Channel 6 was relying on a guy named Kenny. Enough said.
Ain't nothing wrong, re-lying on a guy named Kenny, if you know what I's mean.
--Cletus
Channel 7 also had one of these nutjob storm chasers -- and he gave his first AND last name. What a concept.
But then, no one can trace "Kenny" on the sex offender registry.
Turned the TV to KETV and kept informed on everything tonight thanks to the only reputable news and weather department in Omaha. I can't compare them to what the other stations were doing because, quite honestly, there IS NO COMPARISON.
Those of you who relied on one of the other stations...sorry about your bad luck.
Carnes, Stick to wrestling man.What an illogical post...I didnt watch the other stations but I know psychically that 7 was the best. Maybe they were but you were in no position to judge. You've been in one too many headlocks.
Total truth. When it got really bad and really dark in my neighborhood, I went to Channel 7 and I stayed on that channel until it started looking better. Because I honestly knew they'd have the best weather information.
After that, I was able to flip around back to Channel 6 to see what kind of foolishness they were up to.
Anybody still up and watching? Its 3:15 and all the stations are pretty much recapping things over and over.
I'm only still watching because I'm still curious as to see who didn't make it. My boss and his two boys were up there. And as much as I despise, loathe and detest my boss...I'm sitting here going hoping he and his kids are OK. Isn't that funny how things work like that?
Hey 10:37 -- After Sunday's fiasco, the judgement was already done. WOWT has gone way overboard trying to salvage whatever reputation they had. Carnes is right -- there is no need to compare because KETV has established themselves as the station to watch in times like this. You need to spend less time on your back, obviously...
Anybody else catch the live video from the chasers while they were near the tornado? I believe the words "HOLY F---" were shouted live over the air. Not by Flowers, but by the chasers.
Hey Suxors, where's the damn delay button that was installed a few years ago? Me thinks a call to the FCC might be in order here.
The fact that it seems WOWT does not have a functioning radar of its own needs to be addressed. How can you be "The Weather Authority" without your own working radar?
Interesting KPTM is at the presser in Iowa that is going on now, FOX News is using their feed, but they are running an infomercial on KPTM instead of carrying the presser.
That infomercial is paying for Mr. Pappas' favorite tv dinners.
Six kicked tail last night. They were reporting the tornado before 7 even acknowledged it. Kenny was great in the car, that took a lot of courage. Six has redeemed itself. Those still slurping 7 must be trying to get a job there - no need for a full-time wrestling reporter because no one really cares about wrestling outside of Rulon Gardner.
Six may have some lousy decision makers, but no one here has proved to be any brighter of a bulb. Start a new bitter former 6 employee blog and let's get back to Perrault and Pajama Dance Party hours hosted by Don Cornelius. I'm sure there will be plenty of gawkers with cameras at that hottie-fest sans Perrault. Is someone refilling that pinata with candy?
6:26AM
They do have their own radar. After the NWS Doppler went down, the stations fired their respective radars up.
It's common to mooch off of the NWS Doppler data. I would imagine it’s since they are real meteorologists and not talking heads and can run the thing properly.
All the pet names given by the stations to their radar systems is more indicative I think of the software they use to visualize the data into pretty colors.
6:49... is that you, Dennis?
Who is Dennis?
I have a serious question that any past or present WOWT employee could maybe answer. Who is responsible for getting a fresh flower every day for King Jim to where? Unless it is Jim himeself, which I seriously doubt, this has got to create a fun morale boost for someone. I can see an intern pissed off everyday as he runs to the florist, or maybe it's the junior weather guessers, (is this why Scott, Michael and Jeff all left). Is this now Andrea's job? Can anyone shed some light on this???
KMTV nailed it last night with the interview of the camp assistant. That feed has been picked up nationally and on several internet sites.
The weather coverage in Lincoln was, quite frankly, funny at times.
Our channel 8 guy noted that the whistles were blowing in Lincoln and that he knows for a fact that the guy in charge doesn't do that lightly and there is something amiss in the sky.
Well not so fast sparky. Two minutes later, if that, info was received by the the weather guesser (by the local emergency management) that they are blowing whistles not necessarily because of storm spotter confirmation but because of the threat of said tornadoes. Oh, the Lincoln Journal Star also reported today that the emergency guy was not here, in Lincoln, further making the scenerio more laughable.
The other fun part of the evening is that the NWS allegedly said that the tornado was spotted in central Lincoln. The weather guesser nearly blew a load right there on camera by saying that this was the real deal only to have this disconfirmed by storm spotters. Nice job.
Duncan Nebraska had hail! where was the coverage! Dropped the ball on that one!
-Matt
omaha.com has been down for a while. What a shocker!!!!
KETV runs their radar and the NWS radar switching back and worth to whichever has the best view. WOWT was only using the NWS radar. When it got hit it took almost 10 minutes for them to realize it and get their radar running.
While using their radar it did not seem to be updating, even freezing at times and the image seemed to not jive with what KETV and KMTV were showing. Large areas that had severe storms were showing up as light green minor storms on WOWT. They never seemed to zoom in while on their radar so you could not see the hook echo forming near Platsmouth so I did not hear Flowers say anything about it or warn those in its path. Also their seemed to be a much larger cone of silence and ground clutter near their site than on KETV or KMTV's station radars.
I also could hear Flowers in the background when the anchors were talking at one point it seemed like he was trying to troubleshoot the radar with someone he said something about trying to get the data over the internet.
8:42AM - Must be updating their popups.
8:47AM - I was wondering too how radars take so long to update and found this great article on how the NWS NEXRAD radars work.
The radar scans once at one elevation and then they pitch the dish up to get data from a higher part of the storm. That's why it takes 5 minutes to do "one scan" since they have to do several sweeps to get the entire storm.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/radinfo/radinfo.html
WOWT may not have been changing the elevation of its dish as often as it needed to.
Dennis + Wilden = Dennis Wilden.
As far as those who gets to go out and get Flowers' flowers, I nver got the priveledge to do that. I don't know who did.
Anybody else notice that Michael and Scott both had more AMA accredidation than the mighty Jimbo. Not positive, but I think Andrea might also too.
Updated:
http://i25.tinypic.com/2heebnc.jpg
10:29 - Thanks. Never having been in the broadcast biz, I can't always keep up with the insider names tossed around in here.
You did have Michael and Scott too close together for my comfort in that sentence, though. Maybe he could try being a weather hack since the weather gigs never seem to work.
11:11---I noticed the names after I had hit the publish button. I apoligize to everyone who has been a victim of the aforementioned names' unprovoked advances.
Anyone know who the hell Rusty Lord is? He was on the 6News 10pm edition last night. Thought that was a helluva sounding pron name. Maybe that's the business that WOWT should is getting into, what with all the cleaning house lately. Just trying to get the better looking talent in. And keeping Chaps for the fetish crowd.
From KMTV blog:
"the storm made my photographer and I nervous - seeing rotating clouds like these chasing you down a country road is not only amazing, but threatening," Dave Roberts says.
He are a good writer. Insightful, too.
People have been making fun of my name for years. Good luck Rusty.
Apparently, Rusty Lord used to be the Chief Meteorologist at KDLT in Sioux Falls:
"Chief Meteorologist Rusty Lord joined the KDLT Weather Plus Team in September of 2006 after graduating from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology. Rusty is from Hornick, IA, a small town southeast of Sioux City, IA, where he grew up on the family farm. He is excited to have the opportunity to be able to work in the Midwest where he grew up and learned about weather. Besides weather, Rusty is also an avid sports fan and likes watching and participating in a variety of sports."
That's from the cached verson of the KDLT talent page on Yahoo. He's not on the current page.
Strange how they got rid of Jensen due ostensibly to budget cuts and replaced him with the lead weather guy from the Sioux Falls NBC affilate. Can they possibly be saving that much money?
If you're hiring somebody from the Siouxland area, you can get them a lot cheaper than you can in other "metro" areas. If you've seen any of those stations, the standard isn't very high up in those parts.
Which, oddly enough, fits in perfect with WOWT's level of weather coverage.
Are you kidding me? King Jim is probably demanding that they spend any amount of money they have to do to bring somebody in as soon as possible.
"What happened to my 30 hour work weeks?? I don't belong here at 2:00 in the morning! I'm Jim Flowers. I haven't been fishing in days. You WILL find somebody!"
They had to get someone two people can not handle the number of shows WOWT has even without late night severe weather. At one time I think they had five meterologists so even three is a serious cut.
Did anyone watch that tool shed running the press conference last night?
Reporter: "Have the dead people been removed?"
Tool Shed: "Yes. Uhhhhhhhhh. Yeah."
Reporter: "So, there are deceased?"
Tool Shed: "I cannot discuss that."
What an idiot.
Apparently, the Sports team at WOWT is now a 3-man team. Their "Meet the team" section of the web page has John Chapman as a "news reporter" now.
Interesting...
Even though nobody was watching.... I have to hand it to 3's Carlo Cecchetto. He stayed on air unitl moring and had obviously more experience with breaking news than even the lifers on the other stations. We can bang him up over being new, but the same lifers should know that were outperformed last night. He's simply better at this when there is no teleprompter.
How does the skeleton crew at 3 time to get on here and post?
I agree about Carlo. He and Michelle Bandur were on set together and I thought they worked well together. Much better than Carlo and Carol. She's just awful.
Maybe KENNY!!! should take over for Jimbo. Dude was on Larry King tonight, he was actually able to string together a few sentences without sounds like a blundering idiot.
-Look Out Flowers
The open of WOWT at 10 was classic John Knicley. They were doing their standing open and they try to go to the live shot which for some reason did not work so he had to ad lib. It consisted of him shuffling through his script and mumbling, I believe I saw some flop sweat.
The News Reporter section of WOWT was looking very thin.
Chaps has always primarily been a news person. He only does weekend sports as an anchor. It's been that way for many years, hardly breaking news, dudes.
8:43 what you say is true but it is also true that they just changed their website and moved Chaps to the news section. As soon as yesterday it had him under sports.
Why does WOWT keep introducing a number of their news stories as being done by "backpack journalists"?
Still not sure what a "backpack journalist" is. Is it something along the lines of "high school intern"...But they thought they'd give it more of a professional title?
9:22 - From what you all are saying on here, the leaders at Six can't find their bum with both hands. Someone (maybe an intern on ol' Rusty) probably realized after all this time there was a mistake that needed to be fixed. Yeah, now you all can go ahead and be sooooo original by suggesting other mistakes they should fix.
Let's move off the Six thing and talk about how well Big Sports 590 has covered the recent storms.
4:34 => right on the spot. At their current rate of operations, Channel Six will be out of business by the year 2011.
Also, has Fubar been fired or eaten by her own yet?
Actually, I followed storm coverage on Omaha.com -- and again this week when the scout camp was hit. Loved their live blog.
Gee -- the Omaha World-Herald interns must have taken over Stu Pospisil's computer while he's on vacation...LOL.
Matt Perrault is Gay
Looks like Jim Flowers has to start coming in Sunday's now. How tragic.
Sleeves is our boi. Better than Foundry and their hit Pendulum, but at least Steve C. drives a Prius. Frrrrrrrrunkus.
Okay, did Channel Six, when reporting on the gang shooting last night, have their live reporter say, "We aren't releasing the name of the victim even though we know who he is." and then show the victim's picture from his my space account with his name above the picture and then interview a relative and identified the relative with a last name?
Nice job 6. I guess we won't be releasing the victim's name any time soon.
WOWT will be adding a 4th meteorologist in the next week or two... her name is Caitlin Roth. Recent graduate of Penn State who worked at Accuweather over the past year. So there you go Rusty and Caitlin.
How about that, it started to rain, and I jumped on the air to tell you, on a SUNDAY, and in the MORNING!!! How about them Flowers??? THE WEATHER AUTHORITY IS BACK!!! GET ON YOUR KNEES AND WORSHIP KING JIM!!!
Great Clips called.
They issued recalls on Todd Andrews and Elictia Hammond's haircut.
Its good that WOWT will have four meteorologists again.
These new folks just better hope that Congress doesn't raise the minimum wage again, because they will just be tossed right back out that revolving door.
So, what do flower fetchers make these days?
Two new meteorologists at Six? I was under the impression that Jensen was let go for budget reasons.
Sounds like pretext to me. He couldn't have been making that much money. Must be because he didn't go to Penn State.
Two new meteorologists at Six? I was under the impression that Jensen was let go for budget reasons.
Sounds like pretext to me. He couldn't have been making that much money. Must be because he didn't go to Penn State.
The new girl's fresh out of school while Jensen had over 2 decades under his belt. I'd image she'll be making about half of what Jeff made.
Okay, who's already wondering if she can keep up on the hotness meter with the likes of Carol Scott, Ann Schatz, Volonec, Baggerly, Kloss and McCutcheon?
Voting for Carlo Conchita-Alonso is not allowed, and please, no Wang jokes.
I hope she knows where the nearest florist is.
Hopefully they'll hire somebody who can write better headlines than the ridiculous ones they have on their WOWT "web-channel". One of the dumbest ones I've seen recently: "Baseball and Baseball Sized Hail" about severe weather and the College World Series. I can just see somebody typing that up, giggling and saying, "Isn't the precious? You see what I did? I connected baseball and hail together in a clever play on words!".
Of course, there was a recent earth-shattering expose "Big Tomatoes Growing in Bellevue". Apparently they found some yahoo in Bellevue who has mastered the art of growing tomatoes. And somebody actually thought, "This is newsworthy!!"
Next thing you know they'll be documenting every time someone takes a Perrault.
This is getting brutal, time for a new thread.
What's the record for number of posts on one thread on this silly thing?
Anyone else seen Tyson's weather promo on KPTM? It goes something like 'we all have pretty much the same equipment, but at KPTM we won't break into programming to hype and hype until we scare the Perrault out of you'...
Well, "pretty much" might be stretching it, as KPTM doesn't have it's own radar like the other three stations do. But we'll give them some wiggle room.
I'm just glad that now with Tyson and Nathan, KPTM's investing more in its weather coverage.
Oh I cut KPTM some slack. I think they run their entire news department in about $4000 a year budget. It was only recently that they moved out of somebody's basement into that big flashy studio.
Besides, that Tyson Pearsall has got that cute frat boy going for him, you forgive him anything.
______________________________
QUOTE: "Okay, who's already wondering if she can keep up on the hotness meter with the likes of Carol Scott, Ann Schatz, Volonec, Baggerly, Kloss and McCutcheon?"
______________________________
Don't forget about Kathy Sarantos Niver and Loretta Carroll or Carol Schraeder.....or the queen of 70's hotness - Marcia Landendorf !!!!
This just in from the National Weather Service and Super-De-Duper Doppler Radar:
A Severe Perrault Warning has been issued for the Big Sports 590 listening area. This warning means that a Perrault has been cited and traced on radar. Please be on the lookout for strong HOT winds with the occurence of a large sucking sound coming from 590 on your AM radio dial. Take immediate shelter and turn your radio dial at once! I repeat a Severe Perrault Warning is now in effect. This has been a weather report from the National Weather Service....Weather talk without the SPIN. We now return you to your normal lame blog.
Is it safe to come out yet? In addition to taking cover from the Perrault gas bag that blew through the area, all of us down here had to take giant Perraults. The stench is awful and we need to get out, but it might become completely unbearable if the Celtics win tonight. For the love of our ear drums, please tell us there won't be anymore noxious gas eminating from 590.
I saw a recent news article where thirteen towns in Nebraska are dumping their Perraults directly into the rivers and streams due to flooding and sewer issues. That is a lot of Perraults in the water system don't you think?
Tyson's commercial just is a cute way of saying, "WE SUCK and can never dream to be THE WEATHER AUTHORITY!" Tyson is not worthy of wearing a flower every night, he can only dream. No hype weather, what a crock. At THE WEATHER AUTHORITY, its ALL HYPE, ALL THE TIME!!! Unless its really, really late on a weekend, then its every man for himself (right Millard?)
6 is really trying to hit new lows. This new weather girl just graduated in 2004...from high school!
Why are you always picking on us hotties?
Yaaaaaaawn......
How about Jess as the new weather girl when she's not taping the Pajama Party show.
You better watch out, I'm feeling frisky today and a video weather blog just might be on the horizon.
Is that a picture of Travis on the cover of the new City Weekly cover?
Hey, I checked out Rusty's bio on the WOWT web "channel" (http://www.wowt.com/station/bios/weather/20088214.html)
Very interesting pedigree: he comes from KDLT in Sioux Falls (the station Scott Aiken was at before coming to WOWT) and graduated from Iowa State University (where Jeff Jensen got his degree).
S'pose Rusty hates the B-52's song Love Shack? When I hear the name Rusty, I think of the line in that song "Henru...Ruusty..."
Don't see a bio for Caitlin yet.
isn't that line "Tiiiin Roof.....rusted"?
Craven, you are correct. Looks like the Brummerphile has already started stalking Rusty Load and the Penn State graduate.
Another thought... wonder if J-Dub has ordered profile crop circles of these two to announce their arrival. Keep those original ideas coming.
Barry, time to come up for some air. Suffocation is causing you delusions. Brummer's never been in my Chrysler.
You'll have to stalk elsewhere to find the real Brummer stalker.
7:39 p.m. - I still laugh every time I read your post and look at that picture. Thanks.
Come up for air? I'll just borrow Travis's snorkle.
The Lord is with WOWT
Dusting off old Jammal Lord jokes is pretty lame. He just got stuck in a scheme that didn't fit him. And earlier poster, if you're going to pretend to be Jammal, at least spell the name right. Geesh.
Matt Perrault ... just another Jim Rome imitator.
Jim Rome imitator??? ROFLMAO...he's not even THAT good.
Channel 6...? Never heard of any of them...who are these people that we speak of...?
Gary Drziewa and Tory Pantylines were so much better than his heianus Perrault. Maybe he's a wannabe, but certainly not an imitator, and a terrible one at that.
Rusty: Hey, ya' got Pac Man?
Cousin Dale: No.
Rusty: Ya' got Space Invaders?
Cousin Dale: Nope.
Rusty: Ya' got Asteroids?
Cousin Dale: Naw, but my dad does. Can't even sit on the toilet some days.
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