On 3/11/2013 3:47 PM, dpb wrote:
On 3/11/2013 1:50 PM, Richard wrote:
On 3/11/2013 9:53 AM, dpb wrote:
...

From the NOAA NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory) FAQ--

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/faq/

...

Can my TV signal detect tornadoes?
You may have read about a technique called “the Weller Method” of
tornado detection. The idea was to be able to use your TV as a lightning
detector to detect the radio waves emitted by a lightning flash, with
the assumption that tornadic thunderstorms were very active lightning
producers. But, not all tornadic storms produce large amounts of
lightning. Also, TVs are all different and have different sensitivities,
and some are even made to filter out lightning signals. Plus, if you are
connected to cable, it won't work. The method was found to be completely
unreliable and it has mostly been abandoned.

...

I'm not surprised at all.

As I said in my first response, "back in the old days"...
To me that was the early 1950s.

That's moderately recently for this old geezer...

TV receivers varied wildly, but were a lot more sensitive than they are
today. They had to be to pick up a (by modern standards) weak signal
at any distance.

The "aerial" on the roof had to be turned at 6pm to pick up the
Honeymooners (Ozzie and Harriot hadn't show up yet) and turned back so
mom could watch I Love Lucy in the morning.

There was no weather channel, or much of a weather report even.
That came in the morning farm report.

There was no antenna here at the farm until well into the late
'60s--there were no stations close enough to have any hope of picking up
prior to that. A group of repeaters were built at roughly that time that
rebroadcast the three networks within a range of from about 60 to 100
mi. At that time I was either at uni or had just left for first job
after school far from tornado country...about 1500 mi far.

People relied on Civil Defense radio channels (TWO of them!)
But you had to turn the (AM) radio on for that to work, and static
from a storm generally made for poor reception

Local AM then was the main w/ secondary being Dodge City but primarily
one knew what was going on and paid attention by having observed weather
for one's entire life since livelihood and occasionally life depended on
it (and, of course, out here, still does and still do pay attention
altho it's amazing how little some of the "townies" do seem to know now
as the town as grown to where it isn't all centered on production ag.)

It may be hard to imagine, but the local TV station signed off at 10 pm.
Played the national anthem and went to sleep.

Local still does--not hard to imagine at all. It is midnight, though.
Back then there was no local (and still isn't except for low power
local; the OTA which can receive are still the same three repeaters).

...

In those days, the TV tornado detector was well known and trusted.

First I ever heard of it -- then again, not having had a TV set it
wouldn't have mattered if had.

Whoever trusted it was a fool, though. Even then it was (or at least
should have been) pretty apparent to anybody who lived in tornado
country that there was/is far too much variability in individual
t-storms that do/don't spawn funnels to put much credence in something
that is in essence just a lightning detector.

...

--

It's not about lightening. Nobody here seems to catch that.

Tornadoes put out unexplained energy in the form of high frequency radio
waves in the 55 mhz (VHF) range. That just happens to coincide
with channel 2.


It HAS been documented to work... September 22, 1968
Orange City, Iowa?
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-community/tornado-chasing-zmaz71mjzsea.aspx

But in the end, it ain't Doppler radar, that's for sure.