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In 1985, while working in Las Vegas at KVBC-TV, the station offered to give me a franchised weekly news feature called, cutely enough, "Kniess' Pieces" (A take off on Reese's Pieces because my last name is pronounced niece, like in opposite of nephew).  The condition was I had to sign a 3 year contract doing weekend weather and 3 day a week reporting.  I opted to move on to Texas as the Chief Meteorologist at KCEN-TV.  Twenty-twenty hindsight being as excellent as it is, I probably should have stayed here at home.  OK, my adopted home, if you really want to be picky about it.  Sorry, I won't tell you what the news feature was going to be about.  At this website Kniess' Pieces is going to be my editorial space.  My website, my way.  Seems fair to me.  Of course, fair is a matter of preception and not reality.  Equality is a matter of reality and that's a different story for a different time.  You may agree with what I put here or you may not.  Your choice and that's fair to me.  All I ask is that you truly think about what you read!  Welcome to Kniess' Pieces.

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 SPRING TORNADOES AND WHAT YOU ARE NOT HEARING

“Oh my God.  This is the worst ever.  Climate Change is the reason.”  And the laundry list of crap goes on from there.  Now lets examine some facts, which are rarely talked about.

The known effects of climate change are miniscule, at the very worst. 

There have been several major things that have happened to lead to the “PRESUMED” increase in severity and number of tornadoes.  They are as follows:  Doppler Radar, Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, the general population growth, and public awareness of weather. 

Doppler Radar (DR) – Prior to the late 1980’s when the National Weather Service (NWS) started erecting DR sites, conventional radar system did not show the signature of a tornado.  Doppler Radar changed all of that.  In addition, it took years for the network of Doppler radar stations to be placed around the county.  Then there was the software and meteorologist learning curve.  This led to the “Now that we can see it, what are we looking at?” syndrome.  Software enhancements, over the years, have helped identify the twister signature to a finer degree and due to all of the above tornadoes that were previously unknown to exist started getting noticed by radar AND REPORTED.

Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) – This is like High Definition TV only using radar.  If we thought basic Doppler was good, TDWR has helped develop the gold standard.  As a result, more tornado reports hit the books.

General population growth – The once open plains of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri aren’t quite as open as they used to be.  What was once farmland has been sold, divided into lots, and houses now exist in one-time desolate areas.  Back in days when the vacancy sign was out over the farm area, a tornado could touch down and NOBODY would notice.  Another factor is if a farm owner saw a tornado on his back 40 acres and nothing was in danger it may have never been reported.  More population in those areas equal more tornado reports.

Public awareness – It wasn’t so long ago when I was doing weather forecasts that the difference between a watch and a warning was often confused.  To some degree confusion still exists but not to the amount it did ten years ago.  Awareness is a great thing.  It makes the public much more willing to report what it sees and as a result, you guessed it, there are scores of more reports.

Are there more tornadoes than the past?  Maybe.  But the above four facts cannot be ignored when it comes to the increase in the number of reports.

Now, for a sentence or three, let me touch on severity.  An EF 4 (Enhanced Fujita Scale) touching down on open farmland effects very few people and, as mentioned earlier, could go unreported.  That same storm kicking butt through a city becomes a dynamic killing machine.  Highly noticed and always reported. 

And, if I may steal a line from the late great Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the story.  Good day!”