AccuWeather Exclusively Predicts Severe Weather Outbreak Days in Advance Before Any Other Known Sources, Best Describes the High Risk and Provides Most Accurate Warnings During the Outbreak Including Devastating Greenfield, Iowa Tornado

AccuWeather was the first known source to predict severe thunderstorms across much of the impacted region, including Iowa, southeast Minnesota and Wisconsin.

AccuWeather Provides More Advance Notice

AccuWeather customers and users were best prepared due to AccuWeather's forecasts that were provided farther in advance than those from any other known source, accurately conveying the significant risk of tornadoes, damaging hail, and destructive winds resulting from a very volatile weather pattern.

• Five days before the severe weather outbreak, AccuWeather was the first known source to predict severe thunderstorms across much of the impacted region, including Iowa, southeast Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

– At the same time, the government’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) did not outline a specific area for severe weather stating only "the uncertainty" is "too great to delineate any outlook area" due to "predictability limitations."

• Three days in advance of the event and two days ahead of the SPC, AccuWeather issued a high risk for severe thunderstorms (the 2nd highest risk category). At the same time, the SPC predicted only an "enhanced" risk. AccuWeather exclusively highlighted the risk for dozens of tornadoes, some particularly intense earlier than other known sources for this area.

AccuWeather forecasts provided more advance notice than other known sources of the specific areas at greatest risk of the severe weather outbreak, enabling customers to be better prepared.

AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologists issued numerous life-saving SkyGuard® Tornado Warnings which in many cases provided significantly more advance notice than any other source. These warnings benefited AccuWeather for Business SkyGuard® customers as well as users of the AccuWeather AlertTM service, including our subscription services such as Premium+ in the AccuWeather app.

Talk to an AccuWeather expert today and begin using the benefits of AccuWeather's SkyGuard Severe Weather Warnings to better protect your business from all severe weather risks.

Based on preliminary information, examples include:

• AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologists issued a Tornado Warning for the downtown area and eastern portions of Greenfield, Iowa, that exclusively provided 10 minutes of advance notice before the destructive and tragically deadly tornado struck downtown and points to the east, 5 minutes of ADDITIONAL advance notice or DOUBLE the advance notice of the NWS and other known sources in this heavily impacted area. This valuable additional time, only provided by AccuWeather, enabled customers to be better prepared and offered more time for people to seek safe shelter ahead of the confirmed at least EF3 tornado with winds over 140 mph.  This tornado resulted in destructive damage, leveling homes and structures and, unfortunately, causing 5 deaths and injuring more than a dozen people.  At the time AccuWeather meteorologists issued their Tornado Warning for downtown Greenfield and points to the east, a government tornado warning was in effect, which only clipped the far southwestern part of the Greenfield city limits, whereas the AccuWeather warning exclusively provided valuable additional time for people to enact life-saving measures across the vast majority of the damage path.

In the instance above, people and businesses relying on NWS warnings directly or all other known weather sources that simply distribute NWS tornado warnings would not have had notice of the imminent life-threatening emergency. Across all or parts of Greenfield, government cell phone alerting (wireless emergency alerts) may not have been activated, outdoor sirens may not have been activated, and other emergency notifications from other agencies may not have been issued, as those notification methods depend upon National Weather Service warnings. Only those systems that are based on AccuWeather Warnings that include National Weather Service warnings but also are supplemented by the expertise of AccuWeather's expert Storm Warning Meteorologists would have been activated.

In just the most recent such example, AccuWeather customers and users were best prepared for rapidly developing and damaging tornadoes thanks to AccuWeather's life-saving warnings that, on many occasions, exclusively provided greater accuracy and more advance notice than those from any other known source.

More than 100 times every year, AccuWeather has been documented to provide more accurate, more advance notification of significant and extreme weather events that impact business and threaten the health, welfare, and lives of individuals. AccuWeather has been proven to be the most accurate source of weather forecasts and warnings.

AccuWeather's SkyGuard Severe Weather Warnings

AccuWeather SkyGuard® severe weather warnings protect people and facilities in emergencies and communicate instantly with a high level of accuracy through multiple channels and methods of dissemination, all customized to the client's needs. SkyGuard warnings provide the most accurate, proactive notification of impending threats to specific locations when severe weather threatens human lives, facilities, or business operations – 24/7, 365 days a year. AccuWeather's team of expert meteorologists develop SkyGuard warnings specifically for the severe weather threats and locations that matter to each client, including tornadoes, hail, flooding, ice, black ice, high winds, lightning, and much more. SkyGuard warnings are backed by always on-call expert consultants to help businesses and institutions make early, actionable decisions.

AccuWeather continues to deliver invaluable, life-saving warnings around severe weather events, such as tornadoes, with an average of 16 minutes advance notice compared to government warnings that provide an average of 8 minutes notice. Minimizing false alarms has only added to the credibility and value of AccuWeather's life-saving warnings when the threat is real.

Talk to an AccuWeather expert today and begin using the benefits of AccuWeather's SkyGuard Severe Weather Warnings to better protect your business from all severe weather risks.

Report a Typo