Scanning the Skies
Subtitle: A History of Tornado Forecasting
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: March 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 220
ISBN-13: 9780806133027
Subjects: Atmospheric disturbances; Climatology; History of specific subjects; United States; Tornadoes; Science; Science/Mathematics; United States - 20th Century (1945 to 2000); Earth Sciences - Meteorology & Climatology; History; Tornado warning systems; Weather Forecasting
First sentence: April and May 1997, peak tornado season in the southern Mississippi Valley and Texas, had been relatively quiet, but when a weak cold front pushed toward central Texas on May 27, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma, issued Tornado Watch 338 for a large area of the state effective from 1:15 P.M. until 7:00 P.M. central daylight time.
Description: "Scanning the Skies traces the history of today's tornado warning system, a unique program that integrates federal, state, and local governments, privately controlled broadcast media, and individuals. Bradford examines the ways in which the tornado warning system has grown from meager beginnings into a program that protects millions of Americans each year.

Although no tornado forecasting program existed before WWII, the needs of the military prompted the development of a severe weather warning system in tornado prone areas. Bradford traces the postwar creation of the Air Force centralized tornado forecasting program and its civilian counterpart at the Weather Bureau. Improvements in communication, especially the increasing popularity of television, allowed the Bureau to expand its warning system further.".

"This book highlights the modern tornado watch system and explains how advancements during the latter half of the twentieth-century - such as computerized data collection and processing systems, Doppler radar, state-of-the-art television weather centers, and an extensive public education program - have resulted in the drastic reduction of tornado fatalities."--BOOK JACKET.