When I was a kid, roughly 1960-1970, then as now, we had sever weather. Unlike now, however, weather forecasting was rather more primitive; no Super Doppler 13,000 showing wind speed and direction 100 miles away, no radar capable of discerning hail from rain from debris, and much less well connected members of the public.
Also, for part of my childhood, TV stations didn't broadcast all night.
So, if a storm started rocking the house at night, folks would get us kids up and we'd sit in the living room if it didn't seem really bad, and if was deemed 'really bad', we'd go to the basement.
As I recall, this happened 2 or 3 times every year. We didn't have any information on what was going on, so parents assumed worst case scenario and acted accordingly.
Early storm watches on TV were usually of the form of "70 miles to either side of a line from Beatrice Nebraska, to Adair, Iowa, be prepared for the formation of severe thunderstorms. This may include strong winds, large hail, and damaging winds." LOL, and that might be all we got, but it was an improvement.
I remember an early weather radar image, black and white of course, and the storm they were tracking was so blurred out on the display I considered it worse than useless. IIRC, when they started noticing 'hook echoes' on their primitive radars and associating them with tornadoes, it was a big deal.
We also had, closer to the 70's as I recall, the Weller Method of detecting nearby tornadoes. Flip the TV to channel 2, BEFORE the storm gets too close. Turn the brightness down so the 'ant races' were barely visible, and then watch. Lightning strikes would briefly light up the TV screen, a rather cool effect, actually, and then the money shot was, if the screen slowly brightened and stayed bright, there was a tornado in the vicinity and you needed to take it seriously. Dad rarely let me do this, back then TV sets were expensive and fussy, and unnecessarily messing with one, particularly if a kid was twirling the knobs, was a BAD IDEA.
As late as 75 or 76, however, when I was off on my own, I used the Weller method to detect the Jordan Iowa tornado. Neat trick. Not sure I could even get a 'modern' TV these days to do the Weller Method, might give it a try sometimes.
Weather watches and warnings are done county by county now. We get cell phone pictures and footage sent to the TV stations in real time now, very different from 55 years ago waiting to see the pictures in the subsequent newspapers.
Also, for part of my childhood, TV stations didn't broadcast all night.
So, if a storm started rocking the house at night, folks would get us kids up and we'd sit in the living room if it didn't seem really bad, and if was deemed 'really bad', we'd go to the basement.
As I recall, this happened 2 or 3 times every year. We didn't have any information on what was going on, so parents assumed worst case scenario and acted accordingly.
Early storm watches on TV were usually of the form of "70 miles to either side of a line from Beatrice Nebraska, to Adair, Iowa, be prepared for the formation of severe thunderstorms. This may include strong winds, large hail, and damaging winds." LOL, and that might be all we got, but it was an improvement.
I remember an early weather radar image, black and white of course, and the storm they were tracking was so blurred out on the display I considered it worse than useless. IIRC, when they started noticing 'hook echoes' on their primitive radars and associating them with tornadoes, it was a big deal.
We also had, closer to the 70's as I recall, the Weller Method of detecting nearby tornadoes. Flip the TV to channel 2, BEFORE the storm gets too close. Turn the brightness down so the 'ant races' were barely visible, and then watch. Lightning strikes would briefly light up the TV screen, a rather cool effect, actually, and then the money shot was, if the screen slowly brightened and stayed bright, there was a tornado in the vicinity and you needed to take it seriously. Dad rarely let me do this, back then TV sets were expensive and fussy, and unnecessarily messing with one, particularly if a kid was twirling the knobs, was a BAD IDEA.
As late as 75 or 76, however, when I was off on my own, I used the Weller method to detect the Jordan Iowa tornado. Neat trick. Not sure I could even get a 'modern' TV these days to do the Weller Method, might give it a try sometimes.
Weather watches and warnings are done county by county now. We get cell phone pictures and footage sent to the TV stations in real time now, very different from 55 years ago waiting to see the pictures in the subsequent newspapers.
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