A thread about last night's hail storm in Norman. Always interesting to hear all the "it struck without warning" commentary after a big storm. And most of the time, it's not that there was no warning, it's that the person commenting didn't get the warning. 1/7

I think a big factor in the perception of little/no warning is the fact that OKC TV stations did not go wall to wall as early as they normally would have because of the President's address to Congress. (TV friends - if I'm wrong, please correct me!!) 2/7

For a lot of people, a cut-in on TV is probably their first (and maybe only) notification about a warning in their area. 3/7

The first severe thunderstorm warning including Norman was issued at 828PM, and mentioned the potential for golfball size hail and 60 mph winds. Depending on where you were, this meant Norman had about 25 minutes warning about the storm. 4/7

That warning was updated at 834PM with threats listed as golfball hail and 70 mph winds. At 845PM, the warning was updated again, upgrading the threats to baseball hail and 80 mph winds. 5/7

If the new impact based warning tags for severe thunderstorm warnings had been implemented, the update at 845PM would have triggered a Wireless Emergency Alert to cell phones in/near the warning polygon, just like what you get for tornado and flash flood warnings. 6/7

This is another in a never-ending list of examples of why everyone needs multiple ways to receive a warning!! And another reason why you should never ignore a warning because it's "only a severe thunderstorm."

Feeling for everyone cleaning up the mess this morning!! 7/7