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Article: Excitement in the air. (use of Doppler radars at National Weather Service)
- Article from:
- Weatherwise
- Article date:
- June 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Shadyside, Ohio, added a sad chapter to American weather history, and National Weather Service director Joe Friday readily recalls it during a recent conversation at his Silver Spring, Maryland, office.
Twenty-six people died in the Ohio town on June 14, 1990, when a stacked-up line of thunderstorms dropped three to five inches of rain in three hours. Local forecasters never had a chance to put out a warning.
"The radar signal in the area was weakened by a nearby storm, and we didn't see the storm over Shadyside," Friday says. "We didn't know that a flood was going on there until a house was spotted floating down the Ohio River."
That was only five ...