Severe Weather… a look behind the scenes!

Last week, we had a series of severe storms track through the region. These storms managed to produce several weak tornadoes. Luckily, there were no reports of significant damage or injuries.

I thought it would be fun in this week’s blog to talk a little about what it’s like to work in the StormCenter when the storms are threatening. 

Imagine you are a cooking a five course meal. All of the ingredients of each course has to come together at just the right time or the meal is a mess. Well… working in the StormCenter during severe weather is much like that. Instead of food, I handle weather information… and there can be a lot of it! WKBT covers 21 counties across western and southwestern Wisconsin, adjacent areas of southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa. During severe weather, I sometimes have to juggle information from two… three… to as many as seven or eight counties all at once!  I have one goal and one goal only. That is to disseminate updated weather  information.

Before the internet, this used to be rather easy, I used to do break-ins and run crawls at the bottom of your TV screen. Now… with the internet playing a major role in information dissemination, I have even more avenues in which to move information. So in addition to crawls and cut-ins, I use our web site, wkbt.com, and “My NewsChannel 8 To go,” a program that feeds watches and warnings via text messages to your cell phone as different ways to give you severe weather information. This also means more work.

However… before the first watch or warning is issued comes the most important part of severe weather coverage. That’s planning ahead.  In most cases, we know a day or two ahead of time that severe weather will be possible on a given day.  We use this time to assess what the main threats will be and how we will respond. It also allows us time to give all the key players, such as directors, control room operators, producers, reporters and captioners a heads up that bad weather may occur. It also allows Bill, Josh and myself to coordinate with each other to make sure there is someone staffing the StormCenter at all times. 

On the day severe weather is expected the first thing we do is prep the studio for possible break-ins. That means we turn the lights on in the StormCenter and place the camera in position. Again… one less thing to worry about when things get busy. 

Once a watch is issued, I activate our bug and crawl. I then head to the computer to send out a text message via our “NewsChannel 8 to Go” service. Yep folks, those severe weather text messages you get on your cell phone are not automatic, they come right from the fingertips of Josh, Bill or myself. I then go to wkbt.com to update the web site with the changing weather conditions. My next project is to get the night’s weather cast done as soon as possible. Once the warnings start flying, I will have little time to produce the show and if I fall behind it is very difficult to catch up.

The real fun begins when the warnings start flying. I spend the next few hours running from computer to computer. The first computer I use updates crawls, then I move to another computer to log into ”NewsChannel 8 To Go” to send out text messages. That’s followed by updating wkbt.com with the latest storm information. This is pretty much constant until the storms move out of the viewing area or weaken. It’s a good thing the chairs in the StormCenter have wheels on them.

If the situation warrants it, I’ll also break into programming. This adds an extra layer to an already busy day. Doing a break-in is not as easy as it sounds.  First, we must make sure that a captioner (from an outside company) gets linked into our program signal via telephone. Captioners provide closed captioning information for the hearing impaired. This is a must as stations who don’t follow this rule can be heavily fined. Next, I need to make sure the graphics computers are configured for a live break-in. This means I exit out of the slide show you see on my nightly weather cast. We load in  special severe weather slide shows. These shows have to be tweaked to fit the type of threat I am are cutting in for. For example, if the break-in is for a Flash Flood Warning, I need to make sure the Flash Flood Warning graphic is loaded into the show. In addition, I need to add Flash Flood safety tips and make sure unwanted graphics are “turned off” so they don’t get on air. On average, it takes about three minutes from the time I get a warning to the time we get it on air. Once the break-in is finished, it’s back to the computers to manage crawls, the web site and “NewsChannel 8 To Go.”

On top of all of that, I’m watching the radar and analyzing what I’m seeing. Most storms give tell-tale signs of what they are doing or are intending to do. By studying them, I can get an idea of what they are doing now as well as what they may do in the next  30 to 60 minutes.

I am in contact with the news department. If there is any damage to report, the news department will dispatch a reporter and photographer to get video. 

Every so often, severe weather will be occur during a newscast. When that happens, hang on to your hats! Remember… newscasts are scripted down to the second. Each camera has it’s specific place, anchors and reporters all have their specific places to be at certain times. During severe weather, all of that goes out the window. The trick is to get the information out without causing major technical problems for the rest of the newscast. That means we do a lot of on the fly stuff, such as dropping stories to stay on time, or moving reporters around to make it easier for camera operators to get new shots. In a nutshell, it’s an organized dance that when done well looks seamless. Believe me… it may look smooth on TV, but behind the scenes, there are a lot of folks with sweaty armpits.

Once the threat ends, we pull the bug and crawl off the air, and make one final update to the web site. I then write a quick briefing for the next meteorologist. That way he knows what areas were affected by storms, and if there was any damage. The StormCenter usually is a mess of paper, empty pop cans, and coffee cups. I clean things up then head for home… usually exhausted because by then, my usual 8 hour day could be stretched into 12, or 14 hours. 

The interesting thing about severe weather coverage is that no two events are completely alike. This makes it very challenging. It is that challenge that I enjoy and have enjoyed for the nearly 17 years I’ve been a part of WKBT.

So the next time you see that bug in the corner of your TV screen, or your cell phone buzzes with a weather alert, know that Bill, Josh and myself are working hard to keep you up to date on all Mother Nature throws at us. 

Until next time, talk to you soon!

Cory