“Just a severe thunderstorm”: Tracing tornado threat information from NOAA to broadcast meteorologists and to the public during a multi-hazard event

On the afternoon of 7 August 2023, a linear storm system moving through Knox County, Tennessee, spawned one EF-2 tornado amidst a county-wide swath of straight-line wind damage. The area was under a tornado watch and a severe thunderstorm warning. The tornado was unique in the county in that it was the first August tornado recorded and the first significant tornado in 40 years. We used a mixed-methods approach, including a thematic analysis of discussions with broadcast meteorologists (n=4) and descriptive statistics from a public survey (n=286), to examine how broadcast meteorologists in Knoxville interpreted and communicated the tornado threat and how the public engaged with their forecasts. A notable finding is that some broadcast meteorologists missed some warning details, such as the tornado-possible tag on the severe thunderstorm warning, when juggling forecasting and broadcasting through multiple media, and would prefer such forecast information to be detailed in the United States National Weather Service (NWS) Chat along with more uncertainty information. Broadcast meteorologists described that they typically rely heavily on their own forecasts and past experiences during an event and perceive that the public does not take severe thunderstorms seriously. Survey results raised the possibility that people who interacted with forecasts from television stations may not have accessed forecast details and may have instead relied on push notifications and other methods that left them to develop their own opinions on the forecast. As the use of forecasts by broadcast meteorologists shifts from television-based to app- and social media-based, future studies should seek to better understand how the public interacts with television station forecasts.