Posted on 04/02/2017 11:09:25 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Imagine a dust storm, driven by monsoon downbursts, building near the Maricopa-Pinal county line.
There are thousands of Interstate 10 motorists and hundreds of thousands of Phoenix exurb residents who would probably want to know about such a storm before the stinging, blinding wall of sand arrives.
But does all of metro Phoenix need to get the alert? Likely not, but the National Weather Service’s Ken Waters told the dozens of attendees at the annual dust-storm workshop in Coolidge last week that that’s exactly what would happen with the existing cellphone warning system in place for dust events.
“If I’m sitting in northwest Maricopa County and I’ve got a cellphone, I’m going to get that dust-storm warning, even though it’s 150 miles away,” he said. “That’s a dramatic over-warning.”
Come this fall, those warnings are slated to get much more focused, a development Waters described as “years and years in the making” and one of the most significant changes in the NWS’ warnings in recent memory.
Waters said the change wasn’t the result of new or improved technology, but rather the simple fact the agency didn’t apply the polygon warnings already in place for tornadoes, thunderstorms and other serious weather phenomena to dust events. But soon the warnings will reflect the fact that Arizona dust storms are in a league of their own.
So, starting this fall, if you get a dust warning on your cellphone, don’t brush it off like you might have in the past. Those alerts will then mean there is a dust storm nearby bearing down on you, and that change should help cut down on what Waters described as “warning fatigue.”
(Excerpt) Read more at tucson.com ...
So a one-half mile stretch of interstate 10 is worth several millions of dollars because some few folks don’t understand that you have to slow down if visibility is reduced?
Good grief!
Even those of us well North of the desert understand that windy dust means SLOW THE F888 DOWN. NOW!
Dust storms don’t need warnings.
If you’re in your car you see it coming. If you’re in your house it won’t hurt you.
Let local news handle it like they always have.
Ah, yet more pearl-clutching hysteria, no doubt caused by ‘climate change’...
I'll bet that's a fun gathering.
http://www.wsfa.com/story/31522724/adot-and-national-weather-service-team-up-for-workshop
Notice head line.
1) Many will see dust storms grow and thus global warming
2) measure grow, not in article , more targeted measures.
In his book ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK, Burke mentions the dust storms all the time.
Dust is now something new?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.