The DebrisBallers’s Podcast

Since we began the Debris Ballers we've covered a lot of challenging weather warning situations around the country.  However, we've also always tried to wrap specific recommendations for improvement into each episode. Well, the NWS has been listening! This episode features a special guest, Kevin Laws, who is helping to engineer significant improvements to how the NWS' warning program operates. Improved training, proficiency and teamwork are on the way as is a much better way to issue and maintain polygons via Threats in Motion.   Kevin breaks it all down in this information packed episode!!

John and Alan take a look at Detroit's first tornado in years and an unusual tornadic event outside of Salt Lake City.

On this episode the Ballers investigate a Kentucky supercell which just kept turning to the right as it ripped across the Bluegrass State. Oh, and Nadocast performed pretty darn well once again leading up to the event. Download the episode for the latest!

On July 27th a 1000 yard wide EF-3 monster with 140 mph winds touched down near Appleton, Wisconsin.  The tornado struck late in the morning, and like several other storms we've covered it touched down with no tornado watch or warning in effect. The twister barreled southward for nearly 20 miles before heading out over the waters of Lake Winnebago.  Amazingly, and possibly miraculously, no one was killed or seriously injured by the storm. A bright spot leading up to the storm was the performance of our favorite AI model Nadocast. Nado more accurately outlined the tornado threat areas from eastern Wisconsin into Chicagoland and even hinted at the chance for a strong tornado. Sadly, Nadocast may go away at the end of August as the NWS overhauls it's short term modeling system and takes away the data NadoCast has been training off of for several years. To find out the rest of the story check out our latest Podcast@

131 mph - that's how strong winds in a recent Dakotas thunderstorm were!  Strong enough to topple giant a wind turbine and do a lot of other damage. On this episode the Ballers will tell you all about it including the amazing job local NWS offices did to properly message the threat level of the storm

Weather events over the past few years like Hurricanes Ian and Helen have taken hundreds of American lives. Other major weather events like tornadoes and ice storms have had catastrophic impacts. Before 2023 the NWS would regularly perform a publicly available Service Assessment after events like these that would highlight the positive aspects of the agency's response while also formulating ideas for future improvement. Since 2023- crickets!  In this episode the Ballers will take a deep dive into the importance of these formal reviews and discuss some ideas for getting things back on track.

In this episode the Ballers discuss a June tornado in Kansas that quickly spun up and killed a man in a mobile home. There was no tornado warning in effect when the storm struck, but as your hosts will reveal it would have been almost no way for one to be issued given how quickly the storm strengthened.

18 minutes - that's how long it took the NWS to issue a tornado warning for parts of western Arkansas on June 6th despite clear evidence of a tornado on radar and multiple reports of a tornado in their internal chatroom. In this episode the Ballers take a closer look at what was happening in real time and offer some advice on how to avoid this happening in the future.

In this episode the Debris Ballers take a close look at the Tornado Emergency. The Tornado Emergency was first used in 1999 by the NWS office in Norman when devastating tornadoes struck central OK.  It took 17 more years before the Tornado Emergency became an official NWS product and we'll share the story of that journey. We'll also discuss a recent tornado in Nebraska where a Tornado Emergency was issued and no tornado occurred.

In this episode we take a deeper dive into how storm warnings are actually issued. Warning polygons are a huge improvement over the county based warnings of the early 2000s but they offer some challenges for the warning forecaster and end user alike.