Monday AM Update.  The Stuttgart tornado was rated EF3 and had a 21.3 mile long track through southern Lonoke county into southern Prairie county, and then into Arkansas county.  Two tornadoes in northwest Arkansas have also been confirmed bringing the total of confirmed twisters to 3.  The tornadoes in northwestern Arkansas were located near Bentonville (EF1) and near Watalula in Franklin county (EF0).

I thought it would be interesting for you to know what's going on behind the scenes of a severe weather outbreak.  We have had so many days where we must stay on the air for hours to keep Arkansans informed and safe.

The coordination between our news and weather starts hours before the onset of a severe outbreak.  We make sure photographers, reporters, editors, and assignment personnel are on stand-by ready to come in at a moments notice.  We also keep an engineer close by just in case gremlins get into our weather equipment.  Fortunately this year, we haven't had many issues with our computers and they have held up just fine.

Barry, Ned, Melinda, and I are keeping up with the changing conditions and on the phone with each other working out our plans for any continuous coverage.  I'll take Saturday, May 10th as an example of what went down.

The first tornado watch was issued late in the morning.  At that time, we staff our weather center and keep production staff at the station ready to go on the air at a moments notice.  Ned came in around noon and at that point it was just a matter of waiting for the storms to pop.  We watched the radar and made further plans for any coverage.  Since we can't leave the station, getting something to eat isn't easy.  Thankfully, my wife Andria brought in some food. 

As expected, the storms really began to grow late in the afternoon.  Ned and I started our continuous coverage shortly after 6 PM with a confirmed tornado on the ground near Jonesboro.  Several minutes later, we looked at the radar and noticed rotation near Damascus in Van Buren county.  There was not a tornado warning in effect, but Ned and I thought it would be a good idea and get on the air and stay ahead of the storms and get people to safety.  About 3 minutes after getting back on the air, a tornado warning was issued for that storm. 

Then the storms near central Arkansas began to rotate and storm chaser, Andy Rice, was on the storm streaming live video back to the station along I-30.  We took his video several times and talked to him on the phone.  Andy telling and showing us that nothing was coming out of the storm was very important.  Knowing what's going on is a great comfort to our viewers.  A few minutes later, meteorologist Barry Brandt arrives and starts checking information and pictures you are sending us.  We also have a chat room set up with the National Weather Service.  Barry was monitoring that and feeding us information.  As the storm approached Stuttgart, we realized one of the most well known storm chasers in the country, Jeff Patrowski, was just west of Stuttgart.  We have his cell phone number so Barry called him.  He confirmed the tornado on the ground and told us it was just a few minutes away from hitting the town.  A tornado warning was already in effect for Arkansas county, but we decided to take it a step further to convey the urgency of the situation.  We declared a tornado emergency for Stuttgart.  Hopefully, that saved lives and prevented injuries.  Our news staff sent Jessica Dean and a crew immediately and that's how we had the first video on the air from Stuttgart.  The storm continued to produce a tornado as it went east and into Mississippi.

At that point, the storms began to settle down and we went back to regular programing.

During an outbreak, there's so much information flying around that it takes more than one meteorologist to get it, check e-mails, the chat room, and communicate with our news department.    We have been doing this way too often this spring and hopefully it will settle down soon.  As you, our loyal viewers, watch our coverage we want you to know there are dozens of other people behind the scenes making it all happen.  We hope those efforts keep you informed and prevent anyone from getting hurt or killed.