So how bad were Thursday night’s severe storms?
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WSLS News Staff
Published: May 8, 2008
At WSLS 10 On Your Side, we place keeping our viewers’ safe as one of our highest priorities. And Thursday night’s severe storm system that spawned severe storms and tornado warnings, is a prime example of our committment to help keep you and your family safe.
The severe weather struck during prime-time NBC programming, and we had to warn you at home about the dangerous weather instead of showing you your normal NBC favorites.
So of you wanted to know why were we on the air so long? More than two-dozen severe weather warnings in less than five hours is evidence of the extreme danger the weather posed Thursday night. Also the storms knocked out power to thousands.
Below is a timeline of the severe weather warnings sent out by the National Weather Service. It shows nearly every county and city in our viewing area got hit by the severe weather at some point Thursday night:
- 1. 6:48 - 1st severe t-storm warning issued for western Giles Co.
- 2. 7:21 - Severe t-storm warning Eastern Giles Co.
- 3. 7:28 - Severe t-storm warnings Martinsville, Patrick Co., Southern Franklin Co., Northern Henry Co.
- 4. 7:38 - Tornado warning NE Patrick Co., SW Franklin Co., NW Henry Co.
- 5. 7:41 - Severe t-storm warning NE Radford, Northern Montgomery Co., NE Giles Co., SW Craig Co.
- 6. 7:43 - Severe t-storm warning SW Patrick Co., South Central Carroll Co.
- 7. 7:47 - Severe t-storm warning Radford, Pulaski Co., Southern Montgomery Co.
- 8. 7:57 - Tornado warning SE Franklin Co., West Central Pittsylvania Co.
- 9. 8:03 - Tornado warning Western Patrick Co., SE Carroll Co., South Central Floyd Co.
- 10. 8:07 - Severe t-storm warning Southern Craig Co.
- 11. 8:13 - Severe t-storm warning Nelson Co.
- 12. 8:20 - Tornado warning SW Patrick Co.
- 13. 8:35 - Tornado warning Nelson Co.
- 14. 8:44 - Tornado warning East Central Franklin Co., SW Campbell Co., NW Pittsylvania Co., South Central Bedford Co.
- 15. 8:51 - Tornado warning extended for Eastern Patrick Co., SW Franklin Co., NW Henry Co.
- 16. 9:02 - Severe t-storm warnings for SE Roanoke City, Buena Vista, Eastern Botetourt Co., Lexington, NW Amherst Co., East Central Roanoke Co., NW Bedford Co., Southern Rockbridge Co.
- 17. 9:17 - tornado warnings for North Central Halifax Co., West Central Charlotte Co., SE Campbell Co., NE Pittsylvania Co.
- 18. 9:29 Tornado warning for SE Franklin Co., Northern Henry Co., West Central Pittsylvania Co.
- 19. 9:45 - tornado warning for Martinsville, SE Patrick Co., Henry Co.
- 20. 9:48 - Severe t-storm warning for Patrick Co.
- 21. 9:56 - Severe t-storm warning for Central Amherst Co.
- 22. 10:15 - Severe t-storm warning for Pittsylvania Co.
- 23. 10:17 - Flash Flood Warning for Martinsville, Henry Co.
- 24. 10:23 - Severe t-storm warning for SW Henry Co.
- 25. 10:35 - Severe t-storm warning for Martinsville, Henry Co.
- 26. 10:44 - Flash Flood Warnings for SW Campbell Co., NE Pittsylvania Co.
- 27. 11:05 - Severe t-storm warnings for Northern Halifax Co., Charlotte Co., SE Campbell Co.
- 28. 11:15 - Severe t-storm warnings for Halifax Co., SE Charlotte Co., SE Pittsylvania Co.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( WPeoples ) on May 09, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Coverage of potenial imminent dangers to anyone in the viewing area is an essential priority. Public safety must pre-empt recreational and entertainment programs for good reasons. Constantly changing threats requires continuous, extended coverage. This type information saves lives. Thank you for providing it! Marquees (scrolling) messages aren’t always timely or thorough enough. Alternative info resources are insufficient. Customer/public service presentation was consitent with best practices...and appreciated by our family and friends. Thank you!
Posted by ( C. Sederquist ) on May 09, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Like it or not, Big Brother is watching! WSLS must meet federal licensing requirements for using the airwaves...and that includes the fact that they MUST provide community service. My husband and I are amature meterologists, and he a licensed radio operator and pilot. As a Peabody winner, WSLS once again “showed their award-winning stuff” when they followed governmental ‘guidelines,’ and provided the community service that makes them award winners! For those of you who “missed your programs,” I understand. For those of you whose lives were saved by constant “live” updates, I understand! For Patrick McKee, who spent the better part of 36 hours broadcasting...I empathize! The FCC is a tough task master. You are, indeed, “winners!”
Posted by ( toomuch ) on May 09, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I agree with everyone else. What a total mess with being on air for 2 hours trying to come up with something to say. And Patrick trying to always come up with something better to say than Jeff. Ew it all just rubbed me wrong. I’m going back to channel 7. No DOUBT!
Posted by ( panicphan ) on May 09, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I have often joked that Channel 10 was the place to find out what cat was
missing and a minute by minute inaccurate forecast every five minutes during the evening news. However
last night was hilarious. Whoever made the decision to show Laurel & Hardy,
Beavis & Butthead or whoever those two amateur meteorologist were, should be
sent to the public access channel. I know “we” were under a tornado warning,
but didn’t the Emeregency Broadcast & “bottom line” tickers on all channels suffice? I can’t wait until the
next “thunderstorm”. If Roanoke EVER wants to be a “grown up
city” like Baltimore or Atlanta, we need to improve our downtown atmosphere
(like maybe opening a restaurant on a Sunday) and getting a local news channel
that reports NEWS.
Thank goodness, from 5pm to 6:30pm, for Around the Horn & PTI on ESPN & the Cash Cab on the Discovery
Channel. They keep me from having to use the phrase “you have got to be
kidding me....this is your news??” while watching your evening news.
By the way, they only reason I watched it last night was because The Family Guy
was a re-run, but thank those two donkeys, I mean meteorologist, for the
entertainment.
Posted by ( Doglover ) on May 09, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I can’t believe people are more concerned about watching sitcoms than their own safety or the safety of others.
WSLS News Team, you rock! Keep doing what your doing.
Posted by ( clarke4 ) on May 09, 2008 at 2:21 pm
about my earlier post, I said Russ when it should have been Ross,when it actually should have been Patrick, sorry guys.
Posted by ( wslswsls ) on May 09, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I completely understand the need to keep everyone informed about dangerous weather. However for 2 1/2 hours, pictures were drawn, graphs shown that make sense only if you are a meteorologist, and 2 people seemed completely confused and panicked. Frankly, if I were Patrick and Jeff spoke to me the way he spoke to him on live TV - the program would have been a lot more interesting.
I cannot begin to tell you how much I miss Jamie Singleton and Marc Lamar.
Posted by ( clarke4 ) on May 09, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I am so tierd of people whinig everytime regular programming is interrupted due to severe weather, in case those of you who whined didn’t realize, we have no other means of tornado warning around here. We are very lucky that a tornado did not touch down with the severity of last nights storms. Just thank god you lived to see next weeks episodes. Calling someone a moron for doing thier job, and being concerned about not just your well being, but that of mine and my families as well, should be applauded. Who really is the moron here. If you don’t like it, change the channel, you don’t even have to get up yo do that anymore. Jeff & Russ you guys did a fine job last night after standing outside and actually watching all of the swirling activity in the storms , my eyes were glued to your reports. Thank you for a job well done. I applaud you.
Posted by ( sam29 ) on May 09, 2008 at 11:08 am
actually, those of us in the path of Yesterday’s storms still fuss about interrupted programming. I don’t know who the moron is who decided that 2 straight hours of your weathermen stuttering and drawing circles was necessary, but it was a terrible decision. Every other local broadcast channel made do with a top of the screen ticker and the occasional announcement. And somehow all those CSI watchers survived. All I know is that I will never watch WSLS again. And I suggest you fire someone. Now.
Posted by ( AngieMC ) on May 09, 2008 at 9:23 am
I know that you are going to have people complaining about last nights storm coverage, but, I for one am glad that you had the coverage on as long as you did. I like the fact that you keep your viewers informed, especially with the storm system that we had come through last nigh. Keep up the excellent work and if people are upset about the coverage, then they need to turn the channel!