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The Debate Over When To Issue Tornado Warnings

Several cars sit under the collapsed roof of an Express Oil Change after a possible tornado touched down destroying several businesses, June 22, 2017, in Fairfield, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)
Several cars sit under the collapsed roof of an Express Oil Change after a possible tornado touched down destroying several businesses, June 22, 2017, in Fairfield, Ala. (Butch Dill/AP)

Two destructive tornadoes ripped through neighborhoods this week with little advance notice, one on Sunday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and another on Monday in Salisbury, Maryland. No tornado warning was issued for Maryland. In the case of Tulsa, the National Weather Service did not issue a tornado warning until the tornado had moved on to a neighboring city.

Why were warnings not issued sooner? Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Victor Gensini (@gensiniwx), a tornado researcher at Northern Illinois University, about the debate over tornado warnings.

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