You’ve got about nine minutes’ warning before a tornado strikes – except in Kansas. But a recently passed federal law is aimed at improving that.
As The Wichita Eagle reports, a review of warnings issued by National Weather Service meteorologists shows that the average lead time given to the U.S. public on tornado warnings dropped from 15 minutes in 2015 to nine minutes in 2016.
In Kansas, however, the average lead time increased from 13.7 minutes in 2007 to 14.26 today.
Russell Schneider, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. said almost all of the nationwide decrease in average lead time is associated with weaker tornadoes.
The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 mandates National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reduce the loss of life and economic losses from tornadoes through the development of accurate, effective and timely tornado forecasts, predictions and warnings.