Brain Matters S13.E10: Storms Then And Now

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emerg. [00:00:50] Speaker B: It's six o' clock and time again for Brain Matters, the official radio show of the UA Counseling Center. We are broadcasting from the campus of the University of Alabama. Good evening. My name is Dr. B.J. guenther. I'm the host of the show along with my colleague and producer Kathryn Howell, who's out sick tonight and this is our last show. So hopefully I'll see Kathryn before the fall. I'm sure I will. And don't forget, in case you don't know, this show is about mental and physical health issues that affect college students and in particular, UA students. So you can listen to us each Tuesday night at 6pm on 90.7 FM or you can listen online at WVUAFM UA edu or you can also download any of the apps that you enjoy listening to and just type in WVUAFM 90.7. This is our last show for the semester. We don't record shows in the summer, so we will be back in the fall. And if you're listening and you have any ideas for upcoming show topics, please email those to me at brain mattersradiobuafm ua.edu and I'll consider using those show topics. Kathryn always reminds me in between the breaks about telling you what this email is and asking for show topic ideas, so I'll probably forget tonight since she's not here. Once again, it's Brain mattersradiobuafm ua edu and anything is nothing really is off limits. I'll say it that way with regards to college mental health. So if you have any ideas, send those to me today or tonight rather. We're joined by someone many in the south consider a trusted voice during life's most dangerous moments. James Spann is a veteran meteorologist based in Birmingham, Alabama, known for his calm, steady guidance during severe weather, especially during historic events like the April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak. And for decades, he's helped save lives by making complex weather information clear, direct and actionable. And beyond forecasting, he's become an educator, a communicator and truly a legend in the field of broadcast meteorology. And we're honored to have him with us today to talk about storms then and now and how we can better predict people, especially students in the path of severe weather. James, thank you for being on the show. [00:02:59] Speaker C: It's an honor to be here. At my age, it's an honor to be anywhere. [00:03:03] Speaker B: That's not true. I mean, you're a very busy, busy person. I'm assuming this is one of the busiest months for you just because of that tornado outbreak and how historic it was, especially here in Tuscaloosa. I don't know how many people you speak to in our area during the month of April. [00:03:19] Speaker C: Well, it's. Yeah, it's busy. But I'll say this. Here's some. Here's some good news. I'll start with some good news. For the first time since 2004, 21 years ago, not a single tornado warning. [00:03:32] Speaker B: Don't say that. [00:03:32] Speaker C: The entire month of April for the whole. [00:03:34] Speaker B: We're not out yet. We still got how many hours? We still got a few hours left. [00:03:38] Speaker C: We were recording this. Right. I think we're safe, so. But despite that, it's always busy. I do school talks every day. I was in Huntsville today. I was in Mountain Brook today, doing schools. And when you tack on the regular duties, it's busy, but it's good if you love what you do. [00:04:00] Speaker B: That's right. [00:04:01] Speaker C: Everything's good. My wish for everybody is that they wake up and they cannot wait to do what they do. Whether it's work, school, whatever. [00:04:10] Speaker B: It's not work. Yeah. If you love what you don't work a day in your life. And that what the saying is true. [00:04:15] Speaker C: Kathy said that. Yeah, that's. [00:04:16] Speaker B: Tell the listeners, James. Tell listeners your background, where you went to school, and why you became interested in the weather. [00:04:25] Speaker C: Well, I think people that do this were just born with it. I was just born with a fascination with weather. And I never thought you could do this for a living. I was never told that in high school. So my first major was electrical engineering at the University of Alabama. I was a double E major three years. I mean, I was that close to graduating, but I figured out that you could actually do weather for a living. So I would transfer and finish in the meteorology program at Mississippi State University, which is just down the road. And they gave me the opportunity to have this career. But the engineering thing, the credits flowed nicely. So I've been doing this professionally since 1978. That's how old is before everybody listening to this. It was way before they were born. And again. But I'm energized, you know, at this old age. I don't. I didn't feel this good when I was 25 years old. I mean, I have energy. I'm strong as an ox, physically, mentally. My cognition is as sharp as it's been in a long time. So I'm just getting started. [00:05:32] Speaker B: You know, I mentioned April 27th. We just. I don't want to say celebrated. We just recognized the 15th anniversary. Cannot believe. I can't believe it's been that long because I can remember where I was. I was here in this building which we call a paper machine building here on the edge of campus, right across the railroad tracks from Cedar Crest. You know where that is, I'm sure, where it was demolished. And we lost a few students, I believe we lost, I want to say, six students here at the university that. That day. And so can you give. I mean, this is a lot to make concise, but what happened that day? [00:06:12] Speaker C: Well, that day was a day that happens about once every 40 years. We had a day like that when I was in high school in 1974. It's just a day where every parameter, every little piece of the puzzle falls into place for not just the regular type tornadoes, but the violent, long track tornadoes. And so we call it a generational outbreak, which means they tend to happen about once every 40 years. We had a day like that in 1974. We had a day like that In 1930. We had a day like that IN 1884. So it's basically once in a lifetime. And so on that day, we had 62 tornadoes in one day in the state. 62. [00:06:54] Speaker B: And most in Alabama. In the state of Alabama. [00:06:57] Speaker C: Right, Just Alabama. [00:06:58] Speaker B: And if you remember, I know you remember, but I remember we had a tornado that morning right here in Tuscaloosa. [00:07:05] Speaker C: We had two rounds of storms. We had the early morning round. And then we had. The big part was afternoon and evening. And the early morning round made it a bit of a challenge in that we had about a quarter of a million people with no power. And that tends to be a problem when you're trying to warn people about tornadoes when they have no electricity. But the number that I will never, ever accept from that day is 252. That's the number of people that died in one day in this state alone, just in Alabama. And some were old, some were young, some were infants, some lived in the city, some lived in the country. It affected every people group, every ethnicity, and what I think I learned on that day is that what I do is not enough. My background is exclusively physical science. That's all I know. But what we learned and what I learned is that I don't really understand human behavior. We're asking people to radically modify their behavior to save their life. And so we have brought in social scientists, these brilliant men and women that understand behavioral science to help us in the messaging on severe weather days to make it better. Because that the warnings could not have been better. Could not have been better. April 27, 2011. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:08:21] Speaker C: Days before it was going to be a bad day, the day of the tornado warnings. In some cases the lead time was 20, 30, 40 minutes. [00:08:28] Speaker B: Yes. [00:08:29] Speaker C: And yet all these people died. And my challenge to the social scientist, I want to know why everybody died. I want to know. And we know, we have answers now and we've worked really hard to fix it. But the number one reason people died was the siren mentality. There's a lot of people that honestly think they're gonna hear some World War II vintage air raid siren. [00:08:55] Speaker B: Well, but, but to be honest, when we were growing up, I mean, I grew up in Gardendale and I remember when the siren went off, that just struck fear in me. And still to this day, if I hear a weather siren, it just strikes fear in you. You're just programmed to think that's the warning. [00:09:14] Speaker C: Right. And the problem is people cannot hear them inside a building, inside a house, inside a church, inside a car. They reach a limited number of people outdoors and yet people think at three in the morning in a raging storm and they're sound asleep, they're going to hear some siren five miles away and that killed more people than anything else. And we've got to stop that. In fact, I figured it out. January after 2011, January of 2012, we had a 16 year old girl killed in Clay, northeast of Birmingham, tornado, 4am the warning was in effect 37 minutes before it hit their home. And the grieving father later that day said, we never heard the siren. They thought at 4am they were going to hear some siren. And that siren mentality killed their daughter and it killed countless people. April 27th. And by the way, I'm not throwing her parents under the bus. I know them. The girl that died was Christina heichelbeck. She was 16 years old, Shades Valley student. And they want me to tell the story. They have been a great help reminding [00:10:19] Speaker B: people that if you advocating, yes, if [00:10:21] Speaker C: you think you're going to hear a siren before a tornado, you have no, hope we can't help you. [00:10:26] Speaker B: Well, let me, let me. Before the show I mentioned to you, the reason I asked you to be on the show is because we have so many students who are out of state and not southerners. How. What's the misunderstanding non southerner students have about severe weather? [00:10:42] Speaker C: I think the greatest misunderstanding is that most people that move here or that are here for school, they think that tornadoes only happen in Oklahoma because of movies. Yeah, Twister, they, they just think it's Oklahoma. And the truth is not that this is anything to brag on, but Alabama has more strong, violent tornadoes than Oklahoma and it's not even close to. And the problem is you can't see them here. Our tornadoes are not sexy. They're not visible most of the time. They're wrapped in rain. They're at night. We have hills and we have trees. Oklahoma storms are much drier and you can see them. And that's why they always get on TV and they always get on the YouTube and the movies. And that's the first thing is that we have to remind people that this corridor here, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, we have more tornadoes than any other part of this United States. [00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:39] Speaker C: And we, you have to understand that. And the key to saving your life is being able to hear the warning. That's number one. And again, that siren thing is common. They see it in the movies. Well before a tornado the sirens will always sound. Well, number one, not every community has sirens. And number two, when they do sound, you can't hear them if you're in a building, in an apartment complex, in a dorm. If you do, you're lucky. But so we've got to get people, we got to get these kids where they can hear the warnings. And everybody's, they all use the phone, they're on the phone. Everybody's got one. [00:12:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:16] Speaker C: And the key with these phones, it's not necessarily a weather app, but it's the wireless emergency alerts built into these things. Every phone sold in the United States has we a wireless emergency alerts. That's that loud, loud tone out has nothing to do with an app. And in Alabama you're typically going to get three things through wea. Number one, tornado warnings, number two, high end flash flood warnings and number three, Amber alerts. [00:12:43] Speaker B: Yes. [00:12:43] Speaker C: We've learned that a certain group of folks have turned off those alerts because they don't want to receive Amber alerts. I don't understand that if, I don't understand that either. If the child is missing, don't you Want to help? [00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah. You might see the car with the child in it. Let me ask you this. After the tornado, after the big one, I call it the big one after the big one, I had students come in for counseling. I can specifically remember a student who, her apartment complex in Alberta was a direct hit. It was destroyed and she was trapped for many hours and severely injured. And she was on campus when the warning went off, when the morning was, you know, I can't remember what happened, but she left campus to drive back to her apartment. I don't know what the mentality was, but many students did that. And I always tell them I feel like they're safer on campus, of course, than they are in their apartments. What would you, what would, how would you talk to them? [00:13:47] Speaker C: Well, so let's say that you get a warning on your phone, you've got emergency alerts enabled and you get a warning. We define tornado immediate danger zones by geometric shapes, polygons. We don't use an entire county. Counties are huge, tornadoes are small. But let's say you get the warning and you're in the polygon. You. Number one, a car is a death trap. [00:14:08] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:09] Speaker C: The idea of getting in a car and driving somewhere a car is a total death trap. That is the worst place to be. And you've got to be in a good sturdy building on the lowest floor. And a lot of apartments are second and third floor apartments. And if you get up on one of those again, you have no hope. I can't help you. There's no safe place above the first floor. So if you're in a sturdy building on the campus, you need to stay there. Just go down to the lowest floor and get into a hall or a bathroom and just ride it out. Tornadoes don't last long. They come and they go very quickly. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Most, most students don't have basements. And I guess you'd tell them the same thing. It's just common sense to go to the lowest floor. What if they're on the second floor though, and they don't have a basement, they don't know anybody. What would you recommend? [00:14:57] Speaker C: Well, you need to bake a cake. What you're going to do is bake a cake and you're going to take it down to your neighbor on the first floor. They're your, they're your new best friends. [00:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:05] Speaker C: And so there's a tornado warning. You're going to come visit them and listen, you don't have to be underground. That's even for the, a large violent tornado. You don't have to be underground. First floor, small closet, bathroom. I've seen it over and over and over where people have survived and they're just fine. The notion that you have to be underground, don't buy that. Just lowest level. But yeah, if you live in an apartment complex, you need a buddy on the first floor where you can go down there and shelter during a tornado warning and that's really your only hope. Yeah. Take them a cake or take them something and they're your new best friend. [00:15:39] Speaker B: Well, let's take our first break and then when we come back, are you willing to take an email question that's like spontaneous off the cuff? [00:15:45] Speaker C: Sure. [00:15:46] Speaker B: Okay. We'll be right back. You're listening to 90.7 the Capstone. [00:16:00] Speaker C: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:16:02] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room or. [00:16:38] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to Brain Matters. I'm BJ Gunther. We're talking tonight with the legend, the myth, James Spann. If you do not know who James Spann is, I just, I don't know what to say. He's been around forever and world known, I would say knows everything about weather. I feel like when I go, when I visit other cities, I compare them to you, meteorologists to you. I'll be honest. We were talking about what to do, you know, when you don't have a basement for students. Most students don't live where they have a basement to go to the lower floor. But I've got an email question for you, James, and it's a good one. First, this person says first, I would like to thank you for all you do for our community. You save lives every year and your work is so important. I was watching you live when you're on own home was struck by a storm. I remember that. And after a quick step away from the camera, you came back to the community to ensure everyone else's safety that day. Again, thank you for your work. What are ways to stay informed without panicking when there is a storm in the path of your location? There's several questions so let's start with that one first. [00:17:48] Speaker C: Well, first off, you need a credible source. There's a lot of bad sources with social media. You've got a lot of AI engagement pages that, that constantly fear monger and it's all AI generated and it's just, it's horrible. So to find a credible source, number one and that weather service office is always good. The local meteorologists, they're typically pretty good. But just be sure that you've got a source that, that's reliable. If you go to some of these rogue social media folks, you know the smoke will be coming out of their ears or underwear is flapping up and down their legs. Death, doom, destruction. They'll scare you to death. Yes, you need somebody that's a calm voice in the middle of a storm that can specifically give locations on that tornado. And we've learned that people don't have map skill anymore because of phones. And again, that's not people's fault. It's just the way it is. They have turned by turn directions. So if I say A tornado is 14 miles southwest of Clanton, nobody knows where that is. But if I say it's near Jim's Pit barbecue, everybody in Billingsley, Alabama, they know where that is. And so, so it would help to have just a credible, sane voice that's calm during the storm and just listen and they will tell you when you can get out of your safe place. While you're in the safe place, just stay sheltered and we'll tell you when it's time to come out. But that's the main thing is just finding a good credible source. And understand that if you are in that safe place, you're going to be fine. And if there's damage to your house, we can fix it. I tell kids all the time, listen, if you lose your house, I'll get you a new house. Cannot get another you. [00:19:30] Speaker B: No. [00:19:30] Speaker C: All right. And so in one more thing, I'll throw this out. Just chasing a quick rabbit in that safe place. What are you going to be wearing? A helmet. Most people die in tornadoes from blunt force trauma above the shoulders. For 21 years I have been the chairman of the board of a major hospital. Yes, I took that volunteer job because it's selfish. I wanted to learn how people die in tornadoes. So I spend a lot of time with ER docs a trauma docs. And they'll tell you a simple inexpensive bike helmet will increase your chance of surviving by over 60, 70% if batting helmet, motorcycle helmet, football helmet. So that protective headgear is critical during a Tornado. I can't stress that enough. That's another bit. We have reason to believe over 50 people would be alive today after April 27, 2011, if they had. [00:20:26] Speaker B: They had a helmet on. [00:20:28] Speaker C: An $8 Walmart bicycle helmet on. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Well, when I came to work that morning, I knew there were storms already in Mississippi because, as I said, I'm from Gardendale. A tornado when I was little hit the church we were in, and I was petrified. I've always been scared of tornadoes. I came to work that morning with a tornado kit. I'm going to ask you about that in a minute. And several of my colleagues kind of made fun of me. They laughed. They thought it was funny. I have an underground shelter, too, that I had put in when my house was built. The builder allowed us to put it in before we even signed the papers. And that was before the big. The big one. I'm just that scared. And so they kind of made fun of me. At work. I left. At lunch, I saw the tornadoes in Mississippi. I called and said, I'm not coming back. I'm not coming back this afternoon. It's going to be bad. Stayed in that tornado shelter for hours. Three hours, I guess. The next day, everybody asked me, what's in your tornado kit? Where did you buy your shelter, and how much was it? They weren't. They were not laughing then. What's in a. What's in your basic tornado kit? [00:21:32] Speaker C: So, and again, if in. In your safe place, wherever that happens to be, hall, closet, bathroom, every family needs to identify that. Again, the. The key thing is the helmet thing. You've got to have helmets for everybody. And this is not just for kids. It's for adults. Every human life is precious. The second thing we like for people to have, it's a little portable air horn. You can buy those at the dollar store. [00:21:55] Speaker B: I don't have that in my. [00:21:57] Speaker C: You need that because on occasion, if it's a really violent tornado, you might be lofted and you're going to wind up 50 yards from where your house used to sit, and first responders can't find you, and you're injured and you cannot vocalize your need for help. You cannot force air through a whistle, but you can squeeze that air horn. And that thing is so loud, it can be heard from a mile away, and the first responders can find you. Many people bled to death April 27, 2011, in fields where first responders couldn't find them. You can stick that in your back pocket and just have that with you. And by the way those are great fun at work on good weather days. You can right behind a coworker, ceiling tiles. No, don't do, don't do that to anybody. [00:22:42] Speaker B: We've got a few people here with a startled response that, that would just send them into ptsd. So no. [00:22:49] Speaker C: So the helmets and the air horn, the other thing that I think is really critical, it's wearing hard sole shoes. Some people had their feet amputated after April 27, 2011. What happened? They were in shock and they were bleeding and they were dying, but they were able to ambulate, that they were walking and they were just walking toward any light, any light they could see. And they didn't really understand they were walking over a tornado debris field full of nails and splinters. And all of this was basically impaled in their feet. Of course, many of them passed out and they didn't make it. But those that did, they had serious foot injuries. And listen, I'm from, you know, rural Alabama. When I go home, I take my shoes off. And if you're in barefooted or tennis shoes or socks, that won't work. And so by putting on. And again, these are very inexpensive. You can buy these little work shoes at, you know, Walmart, Target, any place like that. So we want people to have hard sole shoes on to prevent foot injuries. Crazy as that sounds. Sounds. And then obviously the other thing is that we want people to have a portable charger because on severe weather days, your notifications typically don't stop and your phone runs down real quick and you want to be able to plug that thing in and keep it charged because you've got to stay in touch, you've got to have a line of communication to weather professionals in the real world. And so a portable phone charger is critical as well. [00:24:16] Speaker B: I've got some crackers in mine. I've got a bottle of water. I've got a whistle. I don't have an ear h. Replace that. I've got a. What do you call that? A police scanner. I don't know why I do. What about you mentioned you talk to kids every day? You do you talk, do you talk to schools every day? Do you see children? Because I've had one child at my private practice who had severe storm anxiety. It's you. Do they talk to you about this? Yes. Do they? And can you tell what do you say to them? [00:24:49] Speaker C: Yeah, it's very common. And you know, that's the one thing as a society we don't. We're not good at behavioral health. In the healthcare business, we're not where we need to be. And that's my number one priority at my hospital, is behavioral health. We all have to be better at that. But children, they have. This is clinical. It's a genuine phobia. And mostly it involves kids that had been through something like a violent tornado or a flood or a hurricane and the sound of thunder. They. They become totally just locked in fear. And so we deal with that on a regular basis. And the one thing that I try and do is talk with counselors, professionals that understand how to deal with this. But I think information is powerful. And quite frankly, some of these kids, they wound up being atmospheric scientists one day. They go from fear to fascination. And it typically just starts when I'm in a school like today. I was at Cherokee Bend elementary in Mountain Brook. And I was at Hampton Cove Middle School in Huntsville, sixth grade group in Huntsville, third grade group in Mountain Brook. And I'm fully aware that some of those kids are scared to death. And yes, the first thing I tell them is that you don't need to be afraid. Tornadoes don't happen often. You didn't see one today because we didn't have one. You might live to be as old as me. I'm old as dirt. You will never see one, but it's like a fight fire. When I was a kid, they told us what to do. Stop, drop and roll. Yeah, I've never been afraid of a fire. And you should not be afraid of a tornado. Let me tell you what to do. And if you do these simple things, you'll be fine. And they need to hear that because again, they're exposed to so much of this doom and gloom, constant hyperbole stuff that they just need to hear this same voice to let them know that tornadoes don't happen a lot. But you've got to understand them. And if you do this, you're going to be. Be okay. [00:26:42] Speaker B: What are some myths. What are some myths about, you know, tornadoes? I mean, I can tell you. I can tell you one real quick. My mother when. When I was growing up, and you've probably heard this too, and it's. It's just. It doesn't work. She would go around and open all the windows and the doors. [00:27:00] Speaker C: Well, we did that at. When I was a kid in elementary school. That's nonsense. I know the structural engineers said before the pressure difference has a chance to cause any damage, the windows will blow out themselves with bricks flying through them. And if you're standing there trying to open a window that's putting your life in danger. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:20] Speaker C: So that, that whole thing is just nonsense. [00:27:23] Speaker B: What are some other myths? [00:27:24] Speaker C: The biggest issue now, most people have a reason why tornadoes don't happen where they live. I can go to almost any adult group and they'll give me. Well, tornadoes don't happen here. Yeah. So how do you think that. Well, we've got a ridge right over here, and that always protects us. That ridge right there. Listen, a strong, violent EF4, EF5. Doesn't matter. [00:27:45] Speaker B: It doesn't matter. [00:27:46] Speaker C: Let me tell you what again. I was in Huntsville today, November 15th of 89. They had a horrible F4, went up Montesino. Down Montesino? [00:27:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:27:56] Speaker C: We had an EF5 in DeKalb County, April 27th, Lookout Mountain, same thing. Up, down, stay down. Just like Elmer's glue is holding it down. A ridge will not protect you. Some people think a river. Tornadoes don't cross rivers. I've literally an older person in Northport. They never cross the river. Listen. March 21, 1932. Study that tornado. It came right through the western part of Tuscaloosa, where the Tuscaloosa Country Club is, cross the river into downtown Northport. That's. That's nonsense. And I hear this all the time. Well, tornadoes always split and go around our neighborhood. Neighborhood. Or they turn. No, they don't. Tornadoes are steady state. They don't split. They don't turn. Now, sure, they're going to lift. [00:28:39] Speaker B: They just got lucky. [00:28:40] Speaker C: Yeah, they're going to lift. At some point they will end and they begin, but they're very steady state. So this. Everybody's got these one guy, and I'm not going to say which town, but I was speaking to him. Let me guess, I was speaking to a Rotary Club. And he said ever since they built that eastern bypass or western bypass pass, we stopped having tornadoes here. I don't worry about him anymore. He honestly thought, because they built some highway, the tornadoes. And I thought he was just joking, but I realized, no, this guy's being serious. So, and again, we. We live, our home is in a valley with pretty good ridge on one side, pretty good ridge on the other side. Most. [00:29:19] Speaker B: It was him. [00:29:20] Speaker C: Tornadoes would never get down in this valley. Oh, yes, they do. And they learned that five years ago. So don't, don't listen to all these. [00:29:29] Speaker B: You know, the scariest. The scariest thing to me are the night tornadoes. You always warn us about that, the night tornadoes, because you just can't see them, I guess, until it lightnings. And my Philosophy is they have to start somewhere. You know they're gonna dip down somewhere. I don't know how to. How do you protect yourself at night like that? I guess you just. [00:29:51] Speaker C: Well, the key thing to remember, you're not going to see most tornadoes during the day because Alabama tornadoes are rain wrapped. The Tuscaloosa tornado, April 27, 2011. Exception. [00:30:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:04] Speaker C: See it. Most tornadoes are totally wrapped in rain. By the time that Tuscaloosa tornado got to Birmingham, all you could see was rain. If you're looking at it, it just looks like a rainy day with no knowledge that there's a violent EF4 embedded within that. And the other thing here we have hills and we have trees in this state. Trees. And again, Oklahoma, they don't have hills. No. [00:30:25] Speaker B: You can see it coming from miles. Yeah. [00:30:27] Speaker C: And so you just can't see them at night and you can't see them most of the time during the day. So never. And again. I know that people seek confirmation. We know that from social science studies. They hear me. Tornado down. It's approaching. Get into a safe place now they're going to go out and look for it. [00:30:46] Speaker B: Oh gosh. [00:30:47] Speaker C: Which is the worst? And it's mostly men in. But that's just boneheaded. You can't do that. And what we've tried to do in our new. We built a new statewide network. And the first thing I did is we started building this thing out. I want cameras everywhere. Everywhere. And understand most tornadoes are rain wrapped. You can't see them, but sometimes you can. And so with all these cameras and people, we want to be able to show them. You don't need to go look for it. I'll show it to you. Here it is on a live stream. And so we're going to work real hard to make that happen, happen in the future. But. [00:31:18] Speaker B: And the network you're talking about is your network, Alabama Weather Network, which is fantastic. I used it two nights ago because it wasn't on mainstream tv. But you're, you're on all the top. Not you, but it's all the time. [00:31:33] Speaker C: We have a group. And the nice thing about that is that we, we don't cut off any program. We go live. [00:31:40] Speaker B: And it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. It's an app. If you have like robots tell people how to access it. [00:31:45] Speaker C: Yeah. There's apps for TVs and that's the main thing. Get it on your television. Roku, Apple tv, Amazon Fire, all those, you know, major TV things. It's like watching Netflix put the little icon on your tv. [00:31:56] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:31:57] Speaker C: But the big thing about that, I want to take care of rural parts of this state. You know, they have never had really the good kind of coverage that they need. And we're going to fix that. I'm originally from rural south Alabama. I'm from Butler County. I'm from Greenville, Alabama. [00:32:15] Speaker B: Butler county, the worst drivers in the state of Alabama. And the reason I can say that is my dad grew up in Lowndes County. I bet you know where Sandy Ridge is. [00:32:23] Speaker C: I do. [00:32:24] Speaker B: Sandy Ridge. And when we would go to my grandmother's house, she did not have a basement. There were large trees everywhere and we were terrified. We would go in sometimes in the crawl space underneath the house. [00:32:36] Speaker C: Well, it. [00:32:37] Speaker B: That was not good. I know, but we didn't have anywhere else to go. [00:32:40] Speaker C: And again, so many people in Lowndes county and a Butler county nobody pays attention to, to them. Well, I will because I've been to every Dollar General in this state. I know every pig trail in this state and I know where they live, [00:32:54] Speaker B: every good barbecue restaurant. [00:32:56] Speaker C: I know the culture. I know how to take care of them. [00:32:59] Speaker B: That's why we love you so much. Are the storms in the south getting more intense and frequent? [00:33:05] Speaker C: No. If you look at. And again, I've been doing this forever. Really good weather records started in 1950. I wish we had better records before 1950. Yeah, there was a big jump in the number of tornadoes reported in the mid to late 90s. Now why was that? That's when Doppler radar. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:33:27] Speaker C: Came online. So we were able to see little tornadoes out in the middle of nowhere that we never knew about before. So if you look at the graph, there was a big jump in the 90s. But other. You take that out, there's been no trend one way or another. The other there. It's been very consistent. If you look at one trend, to me that's interesting, it's that we've actually had a bump up in the tornadoes here in the last two decades. And the Great Plains, they've had a bump down Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, their numbers are down. Our numbers are up. Now, how long does that trend last? We don't know. But there's been some really good technical papers written on that by some good friends of mine and they're on to something. So that's. We're not on the way. Now, having said that, this year has been. Q. I don't like to use. [00:34:15] Speaker B: I know. And I was going to say it seems like the Midwest is having more tornadoes right now than we are. But the minute I say that, it'll jinx us. [00:34:25] Speaker C: But. But again, you know, for the first time since 04, not one tornado warning for the whole month of April. At some point it's going to break loose. I don't. [00:34:32] Speaker B: I'm afraid so, too. Well, you always say this did. Isn't there a second tornado season around November? November. Am I making that up? [00:34:40] Speaker C: I'm glad. I'm glad you asked that. We consider our tornado season as one continuous segment from November through May. That's about November through May. [00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:49] Speaker C: In people say, well, we've never had tornadoes here in November and December. What do you mean? What do you mean? [00:34:57] Speaker B: There's still a flagpole down near Shelton State. [00:35:01] Speaker C: December 16, 2000. [00:35:02] Speaker B: You got it. [00:35:03] Speaker C: You know, I could write a book on November, December, tornadoes, days at work, [00:35:07] Speaker B: Thanksgiving and it snowed the next day. You remember. [00:35:09] Speaker C: Did. I was. I was in Hinton Place with snow squalls. [00:35:14] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [00:35:15] Speaker C: You know, so November through May. The big, big months are November, March, April. But they've all got historic active tornadoes. We get into summer, the winds aloft are too light. If we have any tornadoes in summer, it's related to hurricanes. It's hurricane season. [00:35:31] Speaker B: Well, and I was going to ask you about hurricane season. What's it going to be like this year? What do you think? [00:35:35] Speaker C: Well, well, so we're. We look at ENSO phase. ENSO is the El Nino Southern Oscillation. This year we're going to be in an El Nino phase. And traditionally in an El Nino phase, we don't have that many hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin. The winds aloft are not good. They basically beat these things up. They just can't develop. The winds aloft are too strong. When it's La Nina, which is the flip of El Nino, that's when you've got the really nasty sea seasons. But having said that, you know, even in an El Nino season, all it takes is how many? One. If there's one hurricane in the whole Atlantic Basin, if that thing comes up Mobile Bay, we got a problem. [00:36:13] Speaker B: That's it. That's it. My husband's from the coast. He's from Mobile. He talks about Frederick to this day. You know, I was in. [00:36:20] Speaker C: I was in Mobile that night. [00:36:22] Speaker B: Oh, really? [00:36:24] Speaker C: It was my first week of being a television weather anchor in Birmingham. Birmingham, September of 1979. And they sent me down there and they wanted me by a working phone. So instead of going to the coast, I said, well, let's stay in Mobile. We stayed at a middle school, Azalea Middle School. And I had a working phone line. It was a different world back then. But yeah. Frederick, Ivan, Sally. And what happens when they come into the Alabama Gulf Coast? Of course, up this way we can have flooding. We can have these spinoff tornadoes. Tornadoes. We can have straight line wind damage that. Frederick, it was horrible in Tuscaloosa. Horrible. So. But hurricane season that tends to peak in July, August, September and early October where hurricane season here is November through May. Really and truly. Our only quiet month typically is October. Hurricane season is fading. The tornado season hasn't started yet. That's the driest month of the year. It's typically really comfortable. I tell people all the time if you, if you want to get married outside or do something outside. [00:37:29] Speaker B: October, October 28th. Listen, I'm going to ask you something. I don't know if this is a weather related phenomenon, but you know about jubilees in Mobile, Mobile Bay, Is it. Do you know anything? Is that a weather phenomenon? [00:37:42] Speaker C: That's an oceanographer question. [00:37:44] Speaker B: Okay, never mind. [00:37:45] Speaker C: Yeah, my expertise is, is above the ground and those guys. But that is fascinating. [00:37:51] Speaker B: It's fascinating. I just think it's interesting. Okay, we'll be right back. You're listening to 90.7 the Capstone. [00:38:08] Speaker C: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:38:11] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency. [00:38:48] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to Brain Matters. I'm BJ Guenther. We're talking tonight with James Spann. Okay, let's take another email question and this is a personal one. So you can answer it or not, I don't care. How do you manage stress and anxiety when tracking dangerous weather? [00:39:03] Speaker C: I'm too busy to get stressed. I'm too busy. I study the men and women that work for NASA in the 1960s they got manned to the moon and I look back on those mission controllers for the when they walked on the moon and Gene Krantz who was the flight direct operator for that, the big one, he said I missed it. I totally missed it. I was too busy. And it's the Same thing with me during tornado outbreaks. I miss it. April 27th. I missed the history of the day. I missed the emotion of the day. I was too busy. I've got multiple live streams. I've got several chat sessions with weather service officers, people in the field. I've got somebody talking in my ear. I've got a telecoherent story. And every CPU cycle in my brain is focused on that. And I. And it never dawns on us what actually happened until the next day. [00:39:55] Speaker B: In most cases, you kind of zone out. You focus, you just. [00:40:00] Speaker C: I don't need to get hung up in some emotion. [00:40:02] Speaker B: No, you do not. What about. Okay, here's. Here's the real personal. How do you decompress after being on air for long periods reporting major weather events? [00:40:12] Speaker C: It's the same thing the next day. I've got two school programs. I work 18 hours a day. It's the same thing. But. But I will say this. [00:40:19] Speaker B: Oh, and they said, I swear he never sleeps. They put that in parentheses. [00:40:23] Speaker C: I've slept since 1973. But, you know, the. The thing that we need to understand is this. And I. We're working with people in the weather enterprise on this, seeking professional help. It's not a sign of weakness. That's a sign of strength. If you are struggling with. With mental health issues after working an event where all these people die. And I did not do that after April 27th. And I kind of regret that I should have. I. I didn't talk about it for six months. I had to grieve. [00:40:55] Speaker B: Well, I mean, James, did you feel a responsibility? You shouldn't have. Did you. [00:40:59] Speaker C: You. You're darn right I do. Because I'm. I'm. They died on my watch. I'm the. No, I'm the senior guy and I've been here longer than anybody else and we got the big numbers. And. And I. I don't play the game of the blame game. [00:41:14] Speaker B: I know, I know. [00:41:15] Speaker C: But. But clearly the messaging was off because the warnings were so good and so timely and all these people died. I memorized almost every single name. [00:41:25] Speaker B: I know you have. You've already told us some. That's remarkable that, you know, tell you [00:41:28] Speaker C: what, that is very motivating for me. And again, I. I don't do the blame game thing, but it just. I want that to motivate me. And I will say we do need to celebrate the ones that day. It heard the warning and did the right thing, but I'm not ready to do that yet and probably never Will be. [00:41:44] Speaker B: Well, one thing, though, here's another thing. There are some people who just don't listen. I mean, I'm not saying that it's not to be funny. They just don't listen. They just don't take it seriously. Or like you said, they go outside and they try. Social media has. It's a good thing on days like, you know, the 27th, but it can be a bad thing because I think people try to get as close as they can. And I know when I have seen tornadoes, I don't know if it was tornadoes or a thunderstorm, but I have seen things go up in the air in slow motion and it is very mesmerizing, almost hypnotic. And I think some people just do. They know what's going on, but they don't take heed. [00:42:27] Speaker C: Yeah. And the social scientists that they told me, you, you can't help them. You can't help those type people. They just, you don't waste your time. You worry about the ones that do want to take care of themselves and that do pay attention and that make good decisions and just let it go. You, you can't worry about everybody. You've got to worry about the ones who want to help themselves. [00:42:53] Speaker B: And you can't make cookies for the world. James. [00:42:56] Speaker C: Yeah, right. And I totally understand that. I'm telling you, these social scientists, they have been so good to us, us in the weather enterprise, helping us, because we just said help. We don't. What. What happened here, what went wrong? And, well, goodness, they've been good. [00:43:10] Speaker B: Here's another thing. I mean, there's a lot of people out there who have that anxiety and they don't talk about it because I think they're afraid. Like me a little bit when I came to work that day. You, you get. If you've never been in a tornado, um, you just don't know how scary and bad it is. Very hard to describe it is. [00:43:33] Speaker C: And you know, some people just think that it's never going to happen to them and they've got all the excuses. I know again, but I know that most people do want to have a plan. But listen, out of all the things we talked about tonight, the one thing that I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but everybody listening to this, you need something called a weather radio. Your fancy phone. I know you're probably listening to this on your phone. They're great. They really are a critical part of the warning process. But during a genuine tornado, emergency cell service goes away and your fancy phone becomes a Brick. And weather radios don't operate on cellular networks. They're independent and they are wonderful. They're reliable and you can get them anywhere. [00:44:19] Speaker B: And they're pretty cheap too, right? [00:44:21] Speaker C: You can get them at Walmart and all these places. And it's like a smoke alarm in your house for a tornado. Everybody listening to this show, they've got a smoke alarm. It's the law. But trust me, you're going to have more close encounters with tornadoes than fires in your lifetime. So please just get that weather radio that's in many of the phones, go into the sleep and do not disturb mode late at night. [00:44:43] Speaker B: I know you don't just die, right? [00:44:46] Speaker C: You don't get altercations. And I'm just saying that that's a critical part of it is having a weather radio to get these warnings what [00:44:53] Speaker B: keeps you passionate about your work. [00:44:55] Speaker C: It's the loss of life in preventing that. I go back and I can close my eyes and I like Sunday. This past Sunday I was at a Birmingham Barons game and it was an event about weather preparedness. They do that every year. And you know, Will Stevens sister came up. Will died at 31 Beverly Heights in Tuscaloosa. [00:45:17] Speaker B: He was right where it is. I had a student died there too. [00:45:21] Speaker C: It was probably Lauren Brown or Danielle Downs. [00:45:23] Speaker B: I can't say. [00:45:24] Speaker C: Okay, well, I'd have to kill you, right? Danielle and Lauren and Will were old high school friends and those three kids died at 31 Beverly Heights. But you know, I saw the pain in her eyes and, and it's real. It hurts just as much today as it did 15 years ago. I saw Crystal Greer at that, that event and she had this 15 year old boy with her. Her sister in law was killed, Carrie Lowe in Pleasant Grove. She was a nurse. [00:45:54] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:54] Speaker C: And that boy was an infant. He was an infant and he's 15 today and he's doing okay. But I see the pain in her eyes and all these people, I just, I think about, you know, Ashley Harrison and a lot of people know her story. [00:46:10] Speaker B: Carson Tinker's girlfriend. Yes. [00:46:12] Speaker C: Right. And you know, she was alive when she got to dch. A lot of people don't know this. [00:46:15] Speaker B: No, I did not know that. [00:46:17] Speaker C: She died while they were trying to get her into surgery to save her life. I look at the photographs of Dave and Darlene Harrison, her parents who accepted her diploma when graduation was held. [00:46:29] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:30] Speaker C: That pain is visceral. It goes through my veins. I can feel it. And my motivation, it's being sure that that kind of pain doesn't happen again. And I understand there's always going to be some loss of life, but we all can do better. And it's very motivating for me. Again, my age, most people are fishing. Well, I've never worked this hard in my life. I'm motivated, I'm energized, I feel strong physically and mentally. And as long as I've got this in me, it's we're going to keep going well. [00:46:58] Speaker B: And I would imagine the technology is always changing too. There's always new things coming out to monitor, new tools to be able to help people. And that's energizing too. [00:47:09] Speaker C: Yeah, we're going to have phased array radar soon, which is, that's our next generation of weather. [00:47:15] Speaker B: What is that? [00:47:16] Speaker C: So instead of a spinning dish, the way radar works, you got a parabolic dish that spins around shooting out beams of electromagnetic energy. And so it takes about a minute for the whole rotation. With phased array radar, there's no moving parts. You've got these flat plates that are common, constantly sending out pulses that come back without that delay. It's faster, it's faster, the resolution is better and again, that will help us. And that that in itself is good. And the models are getting so much better in forecasting and obviously with machine learning and AI, we don't fear that. We embrace that. It's a great tool and modeling can set us up where we can tell people days in advance that we're going to have a tornado outbreak next Tuesday. [00:48:01] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:48:02] Speaker C: Most likely it's going to be 1 and 7pm and during that time frame you have to be able to hear warnings. We're modeling now. We're still launching weather balloons. And that's ridiculous. I mean, here we are in 2026 launching balloons. [00:48:16] Speaker B: I didn't know that. [00:48:18] Speaker C: And we do it once every 12 hours. Can you imagine the changes in the atmosphere in 12 hours that we don't know about? [00:48:25] Speaker B: I didn't realize that. [00:48:26] Speaker C: That's the data, that's the data that feeds the models. And you know, we obviously need to get some real time upper air measurement system and that's, you know, a lot of things are in the works for that. But yeah, it's clearly going to get better. But the one thing that we can't lose, and I tell this all the time to these brilliant meteorology students, is that the number one thing I'm looking for, it's people skill. If you can derive the vorticity equation, great, I can too. I'm dyslexic. I have A hard time reading. I'm darn good at math. Math. I am good. [00:48:56] Speaker B: You're almost an electrical engineer. [00:48:59] Speaker C: Yeah, but, but, but if you can't connect with people, I don't even care if you're doing research. You've got to have people skill. [00:49:05] Speaker B: That's right. [00:49:06] Speaker C: If you're, if you're a front facing person like me, you, you can't be successful unless you understand the people, the culture and the geography. And you're dealing with all kind of people groups. When I get these interns in the summer, I take them to a Walmart in Adamsville. Represents the best cross country section of people that we serve. And I want to see if you can interact with those people in that Walmart. So we've got to keep a connection with people, which is why I'm on the road every day. My first school openings in 2028. If you want me to come to your school. And when I go to these schools, I see teachers and I see kids. I'll stop in a. I'll stop in a Dollar General family dollar and talk with people and just listen to them. You learn things you don't need. [00:49:48] Speaker B: It means something, though. It means something to the viewer too, because, because I can tell just as well when somebody's not from even close to here, when they mispronounce some of the small town Pelham, then you know, then you know immediately they're not from, they're not from around here and I give them a break. But it is nice to have somebody who's from here and knows all these little places like Sandy Ridge and McKenzie [00:50:14] Speaker C: and Georgiana and industry. And don't you dare call it industry. It's industry. [00:50:18] Speaker B: Yes. [00:50:18] Speaker C: Ebenezer's like reform. Don't you call that reform. [00:50:21] Speaker B: Don't. [00:50:21] Speaker C: If you call it, oh my God, it'll come after you. Yeah, it's just a, you know, really good thing to understand this stuff. And today I stopped at a Publix in Hampton Cove, which is south part of Huntsville. Just going there and talk, talking to people. I had a few minutes before the school program. [00:50:39] Speaker B: Did they recognize you? [00:50:41] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I mean, come on. It's just when I've got the James Spann uniform on, you know, and that is your logo. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Let me, let me say for Alabama Weather Network, that is his logo. It's the state of Alabama with the white shirt and the red suspenders. It's genius. [00:50:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's genius. You know, it's a long story, but that's just my look. And so if I'm in uniform, people will know me and that's the nice thing. I can. It doesn't matter. I can be in Huntsville, Scottsboro, Waterloo, Pansy, Theodore Leroy. Places you never heard of before. From top to bottom, Tennessee Valley to the Gulf Coast. And I walk in there and they know who I am. And there's a familiarity with people in me and I like, what do you do? [00:51:23] Speaker B: Okay, last question. What do you do with all the cakes you get? [00:51:27] Speaker C: Man, we got a good one. I cannot tell a lie that I got a pound cake today from Hampton. It is so good. They're hard to make it work for the studio complex, for the people to enjoy, enjoy. But that one I took home, that would too. [00:51:43] Speaker B: I wouldn't. Fattening if it's really good. It's so fun. [00:51:47] Speaker C: My age, you deserve something. I mean, it's just. But yeah, it's in some of these bakers. They're tremendous. I mean, goodness gracious. [00:51:55] Speaker B: Oh yeah. The ones you show on air and so original too. You know, they're just really cute and original. [00:52:01] Speaker C: We'll put in the break room. Nobody wants to touch it because it's like a piece of art. I mean, you don't want to deface this thing. [00:52:06] Speaker B: I know, I know I said this was the last question, but this is really going to. I promise this is going to be the last question. If you've got a new student who's coming here next, who's coming here this year as a freshman anywhere in the state who's going to college, what's the one thing that they need to do when they get here to prepare them? Is it to get a weather radio? What is it? [00:52:30] Speaker C: Yeah, the number one thing they need to do is where they live. They need to figure out where they're going to go. Go. Okay, they're on the second floor of an apartment. Who is your first floor friend that will let you in at 2:32am make [00:52:45] Speaker B: them a pound cake, right? [00:52:46] Speaker C: Make them a cake and develop some friends on that first floor. But you've got to know where you're going and in that place, wherever it is, have a helmet for everybody that's there. If you have roommates, they need a helmet, little portable air horn, hard soled shoes, and again, a weather radio. I know 30 bucks is 30 bucks and for a college student that's a lot of money, but it's a great investment. And by splitting that up, if you've got roommates, just split it up. Put that thing in there and that way you won't miss a warning. So you get the warning. You know where you're going to go. Have the helmet and you'll get through it just fine. [00:53:19] Speaker B: Yeah. You really just need to be prepared and know where you're moving to. [00:53:22] Speaker C: Yep. [00:53:24] Speaker B: Thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate it. I know you're incredibly busy, so this is really special. I was a little bit nervous and intense, intimidated. I'm not gonna lie. [00:53:32] Speaker C: Nah, I'm just some goober. [00:53:35] Speaker B: No. Easy to talk to. Very easy to talk to. Thank you. Thank you so much. Keep up the good work. James. Don't. Don't ever retire. [00:53:43] Speaker C: Not happening. Not happening. [00:53:46] Speaker B: I don't know what we do. Let me make a few announcements. If you need to go, you. You can. [00:53:50] Speaker C: You're okay? Yeah, I'm gonna. I gotta do some radio here, so go for it. [00:53:53] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:53:53] Speaker C: Okay, bye. Thanks, bj. Bye. Bye. [00:53:55] Speaker B: Don't forget, our show are recorded and podcasted on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AudioBoom and Voices UA Edu. Just type in Brain Matters and you'll find some of our past shows. There's also a link to Voices UA Edu on the Counseling Center's website, and that's at Counseling UA Edu. I always like to thank a few people who've made the show possible this year. Dr. Greg Vanderwaal, he's our executive director here at the Counseling center, my producer, Kathryn Howell, my colleagues here at the Counseling Center Center, Gareth Garner, who's been editing our show all year, and the WVUA staff. And of course, my guest tonight, the one and only James Fann. This is our last show for the academic year. We'll be back in the fall because we don't do shows in the summer. If you have ideas for show topics, email those to me@brain mattersradiovuafm ua edu and I will consider using your topic. Once again, thanks for a great year. I appreciate, appreciate you listening. Have a good evening. Have a good summer. We'll see you here in the fall and roll tide. Good night. [00:55:06] Speaker A: This show was not intended as a substitute for professional counseling. Further, the views, opinions and conclusions expressed by the show hosts or their guests are their own and not necessarily those of the University of Alabama, its officers or trustees. Any views, opinions or conclusions shared on the show do not create a relationship between the host or any guest and any listener, and such a relationship should never be inferred. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, please contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.