Tornado terminology – “Watch” vs. “Warning”

RABBIT HOOK, TX — Elliot Jelens has lived in this state his entire life. He’s seen first hand what a Texas Twister can do to a community. And he wants you to be prepared.

Speaking is an easy southern drawl, Jelens insists that, “Ya’ll have to understand the difference between a tornado ‘watch’ and ‘warning’. Could very well save your life one day”.

The grizzly Texan claims to have created a system whereby persons in the potential path of a tornado may quickly understand the severity by clearing up the distinction between the two words.

“It would be a lot easier if both words didn’t start with a ‘W’”, claims Jelens. “But the good Lord blessed us by giving one word two syllables – that would be the word ‘warning’. Now, we got ourselves something to work with”.

Eileen Jakes, whose home was recently flattened by an F-4 spinner, agrees with Jelens. “I always thought that a ‘watch’ was worse because if you could watch it, it must be close. And a ‘warning’ sounds bad too, but you could just as easily say ‘watch out’ for a tornado”.

Spokespersons with the National Weather Office stress the vital importance of the official tornado caveat distinction. Meteorologist, Daniel Shent, claims that, “Everything seems to settle to a 75% rate of evasion anyway. You see, half the people know the difference and half the people don’t. And, of those that don’t, half of them guess right – like flipping a coin – so there’s another half a half, which is 25%. Add that to the 50% and you have a 75% evasion rate, which works out pretty well in the end”.