Several tornadoes hit central Indiana last month. During the event, a tornado warning was issued for Indianapolis. I saw several local media people tweeting that police had reported a tornado but no Local Storm Report (LSR) had been issued by the National Weather Service. I thought that was rather odd, and mentioned this incongruity in a tweet. It didn’t seem right to me that a tornado could be reported in the 14th-largest city in the United States but have no LSR issued.

Several people replied to tell me that the police report was included in the text of the warning. I did not take kindly to that. While including such information in a warning is great, that’s not what I was after. I specifically wanted an LSR. I was asked if it’s still a relevant product,  so here’s this post.

The Local Storm Report is still a distinctly useful product because it has a defined format. While most people do not consume LSRs directly, the rigid format allows it to be used in a variety of useful ways. For example, a media outlet can parse the incoming LSRs and use the coordinates and type to make a map for TV or web viewing. This can help the audience better understand the type and location of a threat.

Additionally, they’re helpful for downstream experts (other forecast offices, emergency managers, etc.) to know what a storm has produced. I often watch the LSRs issued by the Lincoln, IL or Chicago offices when severe weather is approaching my area to see the ground truth to go along with the warning. Knowing that a storm has (or hasn’t)  produced what the warning advertised can be very helpful in formulating a response to an approaching weather threat.

Apart from the warnings, timely and frequent LSR issuance is one of the most valuable functions of a National Weather Service office during a severe weather event.

But what about social media?

I’m glad you asked. Someone suggested that social media is a better avenue for communicating storm reports, in part because a picture is worth a thousand words. I agree to a point. Seeing a picture of the tornado heading for you is more powerful than words or a radar image. In that sense, social media is better.

But Facebook is awful for real-time information. Twitter is limited in the amount of detail you can include and has a relatively small audience. Plus, social media is hard to automatically parse to reuse the data, unless every forecaster tweets in a prescribed format.

The ideal scenario would be to tie social media into the process of issuing LSRs. As an LSR is generated, the forecaster would have the option of posting the information to the office’s social media accounts (perhaps with a link to the LSR) . If we’re granting wishes, the posting process would also allow for the inclusion of external images.

Until that day comes, I’m going to keep looking to LSRs for verification during severe weather events. And I’ll keep being disappointed when they’re not issued.