Page 7 - HOH

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 1 June 2019

Tornado warning? In East, storm season brings bewilderment

By DAVID PORTER ous situation, OK?”
Associated Press Current Bachelorette Han-
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — As nah Brown stood up for
a tornado bore down on Simpson in a tweet , thank-
the western edge of New ing supporters in Dayton for
Jersey, some residents pre- their love but urging them
pared for the worst, while to be safe. “Naders are no
others were caught off joke,” the former Miss Ala-
guard, despite bulletins bama USA tweeted.
from meteorologists and The nature of tornadoes
extensive coverage by puts a premium on prepa-
television and radio sta- ration, according to long-
tions. time WCBS Radio meteo-
Marie Raffay was at a high rologist Craig Allen. Unlike
school sports award ban- hurricane warnings, which
quet in Stanhope on Tues- often are issued 24 to 48
day night with her husband hours ahead of time, a
and two sons when they tornado watch often is is-
and others noticed the sky sued six to eight hours in
darkening, accompanied advance, and a warning
by thunder and lightning. isn’t given until a tornado is
“We figured it was a typi- seen on radar.
cal late afternoon storm,” Tornadoes in New Jersey
Raffay said. “Then the win- A snapped tree trunk lays near the entrance of Lenape Valley Regional High School in Stanhope, and the surrounding area
dows got pushed in by the N.J. on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. also can be more difficult
pressure. I said to another Associated Press to detect without the help
woman, ‘I don’t think we average. Two twisters hit cade and ripped up a and getting shelter,” Payne of radar, Allen said.
should be standing there.’” New York City on one day softball dugout, depositing said. At the time, no fa- “Tornadoes around here
One person in the group in 2012, but only about 60 the roof on its side on the talities had been reported. aren’t the same as else-
mentioned getting a torna- had hit the area in the 50 ground. Toppled trees and Later, authorities said a sin- where, where you can
do warning on his phone, years before that, accord- power lines left most resi- gle man was killed in Celina see them for miles and
said Raffay, a civil engi- ing to the National Weath- dents without electricity. when winds pushed a car miles,” he said. “They are
neer, but others were un- er Service. In Ohio, where tornadoes into his house. rain-wrapped, and they
aware. “The fact is that in New are far more common, me- Not everyone was pleased are small spinoffs; you usu-
The nation has seen a surge Jersey, tornadoes are too teorologists went on the of- with the information dump. ally don’t see them track-
in tornadoes this month, rare for there to be a well- fensive Monday night with Some television viewers, ap- ing across miles of land.
with Tuesday setting a re- designed warning system aggressive tornado warn- parently inured to weather If it wasn’t for radar, we
cord as the 12th consecu- in most communities, nor ings, actions several offi- alerts, complained on so- wouldn’t even know some
tive day with at least eight a properly educated pub- cials said saved lives. cial media about an Ohio of them are there.”
reported. Some tornado lic who know what to do “Pretty miraculous” is how meteorologist interrupting Scott Olson, a resident of
warnings have edged into when a warning is issued,” Dayton Fire Chief Jeffrey “The Bachelorette” with Byram, New Jersey, where
areas of the East Coast said David Robinson, the Payne described the sur- a tornado warning, lead- Tuesday’s tornado caused
unaccustomed to such state’s climatologist and a vival statistics on Tuesday ing him to deliver an on-air damage, recalled growing
storms, where many peo- professor at Rutgers Univer- morning. scolding . up in Minnesota and being
ple are not conditioned to sity. “I attribute much of that to “No, we’re not going back conditioned to swing into
hear or heed such alerts. Tuesday’s tornado dam- the early notification to the to the show, folks,” Dayton action when the tornado
New Jersey gets a handful aged Lenape Valley Re- public, and then the pub- meteorologist Jamie Simp- sirens would go off, even in
of tornadoes per year on gional High School’s fa- lic heeding those warnings son said. “This is a danger- the dead of night.q

Companies report progress on blood tests to detect cancer

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE without the disease. tists. Many companies are
AP Chief Medical Writer Grail Inc. gave results in a trying to develop early de-
A California company says news release on Friday and tection “liquid biopsy” tests
its experimental blood test will report them Saturday that capture bits of DNA
was able to detect many at the American Society of that cancer cells shed into
types of cancer at an early Clinical Oncology meeting blood. On Thursday, Johns
stage and gave very few in Chicago. They have not Hopkins University scien-
false alarms in a study that been published in a journal tists launched a company
included people with and or reviewed by other scien- called Thrive Earlier De-
tection Corp. to develop
its CancerSEEK test, which
yielded results similar to
Grail’s more than a year
ago.
Grail is closely watched be-
cause of the extraordinary
investment it’s attracted —
more than $1 billion from
In this Tuesday, April 28, 2015 file photo, a patient has her
blood drawn at a hospital in Philadelphia to monitor her cancer Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and
treatment. other celebrities.q
Associated Press