All tornado warnings are important, but not all are equal

All tornado warnings should be taken seriously, but there are important details that differentiate them and can give you more helpful information about the rapidly evolving situation.

A tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) when a tornado has been sighted and/or indicated by radar. You should always seek accommodation if one is issued for your area.

What you may not have noticed before is that every tornado warning tells you the specific reason it is issued. Below we explain the terminology you should look for and what it means.

Radar displayed

Most tornado warnings cite “radar-indicated rotation” as the reason for issuing the warning.

This means that a severe thunderstorm will show signs of strong rotation on Doppler radar, indicating that a tornado could be underway or could form at any time.

When the warning mentions “radar-indicated rotation,” it is not yet known whether a tornado is actually in progress, but the NWS forecaster wants to allow as much lead time as possible before a tornado occurs for your safety.

Radar confirmed

Occasionally you may see a different type of tornado warning indicating that it is a “radar confirmed tornado.” That means Doppler radar is showing signs that debris has been thrown into the air near a storm’s low rotation area, giving the NWS high confidence that a tornado is in progress.

The National Weather Service’s upgrade of radars to dual-pole technology over the last decade has greatly improved meteorologists’ ability to detect when a tornado is likely to send debris into the air.

Spotter confirmed

In rarer cases, a tornado warning will state the source as “confirmed tornado by trained observers.”

This means a tornado has been spotted by a trained spotter and/or law enforcement.

Sometimes this spotter confirmation of a tornado may occur in an update to an existing tornado warning.

For example, the tornado warning could have initially only been issued based on radar. Shortly thereafter, the National Weather Service (NWS) may receive credible information that a tornado has been sighted. The NWS may then update the message in this alert to indicate that it is an acknowledgment from the spotter.

Particularly dangerous situation

You may also see the line “particularly dangerous situation” in warnings where radar or observers have confirmed that a tornado is forming and that the tornado is likely to be strong. These warnings are an enhanced version of a tornado warning, intended to indicate that there is an unusually high risk of damage and loss of life for a particular storm. PDS tornado warnings are unusual.

Tornado emergency

A tornado warning that results in a “tornado emergency” is the least common occurrence and is reserved for the most dire situations.

This is only issued “if there is a serious threat to human life and catastrophic damage from an impending or ongoing tornado,” according to the NWS.

A tornado emergency may be declared based on a confirmed or radar-confirmed sighting of a tornado.

Below is an example of a tornado emergency declared by the NWS for Fort Polk, Louisiana on April 22, 2020. This particular tornado emergency was declared due to radar confirmation of debris being thrown up by a dangerous tornado.

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