A Comment...

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..I have received multiple comments on Twitter, including one from a newspaper reporter, pertaining to the National Weather Service Wichita's lack of a tornado forecast moments before the NWS Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch. That tornado watch included the region for which the NWS has forecasting and warning responsibility. Yes, that is curious.

Below is a screen capture from Twitter that shows my feed. There were only seconds between the issuance of the tornado watch and our local office's non-forecast.

Moments later, the first tornado warning was issued was issued by the NWS Wichita. Happy to report they got that one right.

I just checked and the Storm Prediction Center's tally has 16 reports of tornadoes in Kansas, so far, most in the Wichita NWS's area of responsibility.

Before I get asked, their forecast of the highest flooding potential -- the hatched area in the uppermost graphic -- was also incorrect (too far southeast). More than 7" of rain has fallen since this afternoon but it was not in the hatched area.

That said, we all have bad days. I know the staff of the Wichita NWS has had a lot of distractions lately. I'm sure they will get back to focusing on making great forecasts and storm warnings for the public-at-large, which is their core mission. We respect our colleagues in the NWS (I even wrote a book full of praise for the NWS) and we appreciate it when their forecasts and warnings are correct.

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