On April 29th, a crew from Cable News Network (CNN) visited the National Weather Service in Little Rock to provide live coverage of a severe weather event and to tape segments for future use. The CNN crew went to Arkansas originally to tell the story of the Beebe, Arkansas, schools during the tornado outbreak of January 21, 1999. On that date, Superintendent Kieth Williams and Coach Hal Crisco kept up with the unfolding tornado outbreak and evacuated the school gym halfway through a basketball game. About 300 people were in the gym at the time, and all were evacuated nearly 30 minutes before a tornado destroyed the building.

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The Beebe Story (Basketball Game)

As part of the story, CNN wanted to show their viewers what happens at a Weather Forecast Office (WFO) during a severe weather event. Several live broadcasts occurred throughout the morning, at which time hailstorms were moving repeatedly across the northern half of Arkansas. The CNN producers in Atlanta were especially interested in how severe weather warnings are issued, so the crew in Little Rock taped Chris Buonanno (Science and Operations Officer at the WFO) issuing Severe Thunderstorm Warnings.

In the picture: CNN Reporter Chris Lawrence (second from right) watches Science and Operations Officer Chris Buonanno (second from left) issue Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for hailstorms in northern Arkansas. Click to enlarge.

During the afternoon, the process of issuing a Tornado Watch was taped. CNN indicated these taped segments, plus part of the earlier live coverage, would be saved for use as background footage in future severe weather coverage on the network. The crew thanked Renee Fair (Meteorologist-in-Charge at the WFO) for the hospitality and helpfulness provided by the WFO staff.