![]() The curvature of the Earth limits the Melbourne radar's "vision" to high in the atmosphere. At that time, they were told by the weather service that Melbourne's new radar would protect Tampa Bay until Ruskin is updated.īut Saturday's storms proved that Melbourne's radar is too far away to have seen the Pinellas tornadoes. Local officials, including Gibbons and Platt, protested the priority list last year. Four of the first six stations already equipped with Doppler are in the region. Why is the Tampa Bay area so low on the list?įederal officials say priority was given to the "tornado alley" area between the Rockies and the Mississippi River, since so many people have been killed there by huge tornadoes. "That's why Congress has mandated them to be the single source of warnings for weather." "We do not have the staff nor the equipment that the National Weather Service has at its fingertips," Channel 13 meteorologist Roy Leep said. The old equipment only senses objects, such as precipitation, trees and birds.Īll three major local television stations have some Doppler capability, but none of them were able to alert the Ruskin station to the impending tornadoes. Unlike the 1957 radar equipment now used in Ruskin, the Doppler radar can detect wind speed and direction. The priorities were set by a committee drawn from the military, the weather service and the Federal Aviation Authority. Of 159 sites around the nation, Ruskin ranks 127th. In Florida, only Key West is lower on the list for modern equipment. Three of four storm deaths Saturday in Pinellas County occurred in mobile home communities, whose residents are advised to evacuate during strong storms.Ĭurrently, the Ruskin station isn't supposed to see Doppler radar until February 1995, one of the last in the nation to be updated, weather service officials say. A warning, which would have been broadcast over TV and radio, wouldn't have come early enough to avert property damage, but it might have given residents at least a few more minutes to find safer shelter. ![]()
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