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Tornado warning dissemination since 1948 has advanced from outdoor sirens, through radio and television, NOAA Weather Radio, and lately GPS-based systems.
Despite promising research on the conditions that are favorable for tornadoes in the 1880s by John P. Finley, a general consensus was reached among scientists in the 1880s and 1890s that tornado forecasts and warnings would cause more harm than good. A ban was placed on the issuance of tornado warnings from 1887, when the U.S. Army Signal Corps handled weather forecasts, until 1938, when the civilian U.S. Weather Bureau (USWB) finally lifted the ban. The beginning of modern tornado warnings was primarily a result of the success of Fawbush and Miller in forecasting a tornado at Tinker Air Force Base in 1948 (e.g., Bradford 1999; Galway 1985; Bradford 2001).
The science of tornado warning, and the subsequent dissemination of those warnings to the public, has continued to expand rapidly since 1950. The development of spotter networks, and the conversion of radar to use for the detection of tornadoes, made tornado warning programs much more successful. However, as stated in the policy statement of the American Meteorological Society on tornado detection, tracking, and warning (AMS 1975), "One of the most crucial steps in the tornado warning process is communication of the danger to the public." During the 1950s and 1960s, tornado warnings were disseminated to the public primarily by commercial television and radio stations. The TV and radio stations received these warnings from the USWB by telephone or teletype. Radio and television stations continue today as a primary source of warning information. The methods of television warning dissemination have advanced considerably in the past 20 years. Outdoor "air raid" sirens have been used for tornado warnings since about 1970. After the Super Outbreak of tornadoes in 1974, a large expansion of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Weather Radio was ordered (NOAA 1999), allowing millions of Americans to receive tornado warnings in their homes directly from the National Weather Service (NWS), formerly the USWB.
Today, in addition to commercial broadcasting, NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), and outdoor sirens, other innovative methods of warning dissemination are being developed as technology advances. Warnings are delivered via the Internet to people's computers or mobile telephones. Since...