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One of my best friends lives in Greenville, Alabama. We grew up together in Decatur Alabama . I'm still in Decatur, he now lives in Greenville. We lived on the same street. We talk about 1974 with fear and respect. Being in our mid 60s, we have not forgotten anything about that two day event. Eye opening is an understatement. Thanks for being the man.

Never knew he was an amateur radio operator , really cool

He got me to start wearing my college football helmet during warnings.

I remember that day vividly. We are in Huntsville. My husband was stuck at work in the research park. The whole state of Alabama was under siege the entire day. It was terrifying and heartbreaking.

Hello good meet you come favorite new 19 friend have happy Thanksgiving holiday open cheerleader every morning before I go to work Airport did you do the weather 42 have a nice day jenny 👌💯✈️👠

So I’ll never forget I was literally crawling in a rubble pile when the death of osama bin laden was announced. I mention this because James mentioned the royal wedding taking attention but then osama bin laden stole from us again and took attention away from the 4/27/2011 event.

BEING FROM KENTUCKY My state experienced one of the worst tornadoes in our states history Mayfield was hit by an EF-4 tornado at night on a friday this same storm lifted near vine grove which is where my aunt and uncle lives days after the people that came to help was very good iit didnt matter if yo voted for trump or biden, or bevin or beshear or rand paul we all stepped in to help these smaller communities Louisville only had a really nasty thunderstorm that night just 9 months way from the 10thanniversery of the Henryville Tornado of 2012

Love this man!

What about the person that puts the words into the NOAA weather radios?

I live in western North Carolina and remember watching the Tuscaloosa tornado cell come practically to my back door. The fact that James spann knows and remembers that, shows the attention to detail he Practices

I got so mad when people said the sien does not you

What a true hero James Spann is. I wish I could've been there live to ask him a question, but instead I'll put it to the other weather weenies watching this. He talked about how people actually SEEING a live video of the tornado makes a huge difference. I wonder how technology can make that easier to do? Some of the highest-quality videos of tornadoes in the south were shot just this year, by drone. With drones, you can see over the tree line, and you can get way closer without risking anyone's life. Plus they're cheap! Maybe one day, drones will make it as if every local weather station, no matter how small, has their own drone that's effectively like a 'weather chopper' of the type that so effectively filmed the '99 and '13 Moore tornadoes. James Spann also mentioned getting video is hard in the south due to the prevalence of rain-wrapped tornadoes. Could augmented reality technology help with that? Look up Skip Talbot's video of the '13 El Reno tornado - the Tornado was often rain-wrapped and so large and amorphous that you could hardly tell you were looking at a tornado. But Skip time and location coordinated his video with radar data to draw start lines on the storm and overlay where the tornado was and how big it was. Maybe weather stations could develop similar technology that does a real-time overlay on images of rain-wrapped tornadoes to show where the tornado is and how big it is, and augment the image to show how damaging the tornado is.

I just watched this presentation, and I wanted to share how impressed I was by the two young hosts who organized the event fielded the questions and introduced the featured speaker. 👍👍 There is nothing more comforting to me than to see that next generation embrace issues that are essential to the quality of life of people who they may not know, but value highly. 😊 Well done! 👍👍 And of course, it should go without saying that James Spann's presentation was excellent, with the perfect balance of science/meteorology & the human side of severe weather & tornadoes. Fantastic as always! 👍👍 I will add that I have spent a lot of time on chat lines that run parallel to video streamed live by storm chasers, because I like chatting about meteorology, but primarily to educate people & field questions re: severe weather & safety. 🤓 I certainly can attest to the fact that in these chats there are an awful lot of very worried & frightened people who have gone through severe weather disasters, perhaps were injured and/or lost family & friends. While 'weather geeks' like me find severe weather fascinating (but certainly not fun), there are far far more people who experience significant stress & have their PTSD triggered, even if their immediate area is not threatened, or the anticipated event is a day or more away. So, IMHO, 'weather geeks' out there need to be sensitive to this whenever there are discussions about SPC Convective Outlooks & scenarios predicted by weather models, and discussions in social media during a severe weather event. 😕 BTW, I recall reading that historically the fatality rate in F-5/EF-5 tornadoes has been a bit less than 10%, and that includes a lot of tornadoes over the years that impacted places where homes were old, poorly constructed, and/or not built according to code, and where people had little or not warning (more than 20yrs ago) or did not heed those warnings. (sadly, the Joplin tornado represents a case where all these problems existed) Furthermore, the public does not understand that in a violent tornado, only a narrow strip in the centre of the damage path will have experienced EF-4/EF-5 level damage, plus a tornado that is rated as EF-5 will not be at maximum strength for all of its life. (*) The bottom line: A tornado that's capable of EF-5 level damage is not a death sentence, especially if people in its path are aware of the warning, heed the warning & take proper shelter. (*) I encourage everyone to go to the NWS website, look at the damage survey maps for the May 20, 2013 Newcastle-Moore EF-5 tornado & the May 22, 2011 Joplin EF-5 tornado, and see where there was EF-5 level damage. Finally, there is good news: What I have seen over the last few years is that more & more people on social media & chat rooms are spreading the message re: the dangers of relying on sirens, the availability of cell phone warning apps & weather radios, and the value of having helmets for everyone who takes shelter during a severe weather warning. So, from my perspective, the messages that Mr. Spann highlighted in the presentation definitely are finding an audience & making an impact. 😊 Again...well done by everyone involved & thank you! 👍👍

James, you Sir.....are what we call A TRUE HERO. May God bless you for your life-saving work.

Respect the polygon

Totally a weather nerd, geek, and all those things James mentioned, but I genuinely hope that a tornado never flaps my underwear.

“I wasn’t that good. I am still not that good.” James you are likely the in the top 5 meteorologists in history.

Love James Spann. Intelligent and informative. Im from Oklahoma and would rate all time top 3 meteorologists 1. Gary England 2. James Spann 3. Travis Meyer

I know the siren mentality has got to stop. However, when he said March 25th, criticizing sirens, saying you're not going to hear them, and I heard them. His main issue with the siren mentality, is people who solely depend on them to warn them about deadly tornadoes. Also, him saying that it's an anomaly for them to occur at 4 in the afternoon is not correct. Maybe he's using tounge and cheek language. www.weather.gov/images/bmx/tornadoes/hour.jpg