Viewers Pissed at NWA Station Over Weather Coverage..Or Lack Thereof...

Seems KFSM/Channel 5/Fort Smith is catching some heat from viewers over the lack of severe weather coverage Sunday night.  Chief Meteorologist Garrett Lewis' facebook page is filled with upset viewers on how severe weather wasn't broadcast Sunday evening.  In one post Lewis explained it this way:


It's difficult to understand but sometimes Tornado Warnings are issued for QLCS pockets of rotation. (Rotation that lasts 1 scan on a line of storms and then disappears; although the warning continues for as much as an hour).

If there's an actual tornado risk... We're on the air: Period. If it's mid-level rotation that is not capable of a tornado... we'll be on KXNW or running crawls.

Hopefully NOAA/NWS will come up with a way to handle storms which show small rotation on 1 scan and then disappear.

In my opinion the increase in the false-alarm-rate is not helpful to anyone.

No tornado occurred tonight and there never was a significant risk of one occurring.


BUT a tornado did touch down in Peter Pender in Franklin County.  Every station has to deal with this sort of thing.  Viewers in the place where the bad weather isn't moving through get mad because they wanna see their programs..then where the weather is moving through those viewers want to see the weather.  Us viewers in the Little Rock and Shreveport markets have to deal with the same thing.  But you know what the first priority of a tv station isn't to provide entertainment, it is to keep viewers informed of potential life and death situations like severe storms.  Just part of having an fcc license.