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Coverage Of September 8th Connecticut Tornado Outbreak

J

Joseph_Gallant

This afternoon (September 8th), there is a severe weather outbreak (at this writing, 2:15 P.M. EDT) in Western New England, with tornadoes sighted in western Connecticut (severe weather may well move further to the east later today and this evening).

Although I live outside the signal areas of the Hartford/New Haven-area TV stations, three Hartford-area TV stations (WFSB-3, WVIT-30, and WTIC-61) are streaming live video of their storm coverage on the Internet at this writing.

Two of them (WFSB and WVIT) are running the coverage with a split-screen of a sports event (the U.S. Open tennis tournament and a PGA golf tournament in Indiana, respectively), with the sporting event in each case being seen as silent video in a small box on the left side of the screen while most of the screen is taken up by weather radar (except for a few brief occasions when a meteorologist is seen on-camera) with live reporting from such meteorologists.

I don't know what WTNH-8 is doing as I couldn't find their coverage (if any) being streamed live online, but I suspect they're doing something similar.

Given that the chance of severe weather in those areas will likely continue for several more hours.

Anyone in the area who can provide additional information on what the market's TV stations are doing are welcome to respond and add that information.

Update, 2:40 P.M. EDT: WFSB, WVIT, and WTIC have ended their live coverage as there are no active tornado warnings (for now) in their areas, but if any more tornadoes develop, these stations likely will return to the air once such warnings are issued.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Two of them (WFSB and WVIT) are running the coverage with a split-screen of a sports event (the U.S. Open tennis tournament and a PGA golf tournament in Indiana, respectively), with the sporting event in each case being seen as silent video in a small box on the left side of the screen while most of the screen is taken up by weather radar (except for a few brief occasions when a meteorologist is seen on-camera) with live reporting from such meteorologists.
Click to expand...

Excellent coverage early this afternoon by Channel 3. This type of weather reporting is necessary because a lot of us have smartphones that we check first for weather maps and storm advisories. Broadcast television needs to be up to date with warnings and watches because the smartphone technology is.
 
Bill, even though the storms bought rain and thunder to my neck of the woods in SW CT, I had Channel 3 on most of the time (WFSB Fairfield County [3.4] via Cablevision). They did as great a job as you would expect. The CT stations seem to have a policy as to when a tornado warning is issued, they go on the air immediately and stay on until the danger(s) pass. Of course during winter when there is a threat of six or more inches of snow, 'FSB names the storms ala hurricanes. A tradition dating back to their days as WTIC-TV with the New England Weather Service.
 
The CT stations have always been good at hyping up all weather events. While it's good that they were reporting during that severe wx situation, they also exaggerate pretty much any weather event going on. At the first sign of snow this winter you'll see wall to wall coverage with reporters standing in front of huge salt piles and hanging off the side of a DOT plow. LOL
 
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