I’ve spent most of my life in Tornado Alley and Dixie Alley; just happen to be in New England on business today, and some of the coverage is amateurish, at least by the standards of Oklahoma City or Birmingham. On WHDH-TV (the NBC affiliate), the anchor just told a reporter to be careful, believing he was near a tornado. Then, she was corrected, and told the twister was outside another community, well away from the Channel 7 crew.
And one of the station’s “mets” just said these supercells “blew up out of nowhere.” Huh? There’s been a tornado watch out for several hours, so this is hardly a surprise.
To be fair, the Boston stations don’t get much practice at this type of coverage—and it shows. Maybe they can work an exchange program with a station in OKC or Birmingham.
Some of the local stations are doing a better job. NECN (the regional cable outfit) is providing solid coverage, as is the ABC station, WCVB. Can’t get WBZ on cable here in Maine, so I can’t offer any opinion on their effort.
Still, there isn’t a Gary England, James Spann or Greg Fishel in the bunch.
In all fairness, tornadoes in these parts are pretty rare occurrences. The reporters have to get excited about something b/c they got nuthin'...only2s or 4s at the most.