Iowa has had some dangerous tornadoes this year, but fortunately, no serious injuries or deaths because of the storms. One reason no one has been killed is the warnings issued by the National Weather Service. Meterologist Rod Donovan credits better and faster technology.
He says, a decade ago, his office had just one doppler radar station. Now, there are several work stations featuring new doppler radars that allow meteorologists to monitor several different storms at once. “We have templets too,” Donovan adds, “so once we have the warning drawn up, we can pull up the templet and just hit send. So with the technology and those templets, it’s just much easier and much faster.”
Donovan says what now takes the weather service a few seconds to prepare and send out, took several minutes 10 years ago. So far this year, Iowa has had nearly two dozen confirmed tornadoes.