Hot Items 2004NSSL researcher consulted for CBS weather disaster mini-series
Producers of the CBS mini-series "Category 6: Day of Destruction" consulted NOAA meteorologists in Norman, Okla., to improve the scientific accuracy of the program that aired Nov. 14 and 17.
Dr. Harold Brooks, research meteorologist with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and Dr. Joseph Schaefer, director of the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, reviewed scripts of the production and provided suggestions to the producers and writers. In addition, director Dick Lowry visited the NOAA Weather Partners, including NSSL, SPC and the Norman Weather Forecast Office, and met with local meteorologists in the summer to take photos for set designs and learn about severe weather research and forecasting.
The four-hour event mini-series was a natural disaster drama about three enormous weather systems that ultimately collided over Chicago, creating the worst super-storm in the nation's history -- but only after they first caused the national power grid to collapse, making it impossible to warn anyone about the impending disaster. Several scenes of the movie took place in a severe weather forecast center modeled after the Storm Prediction Center.
While some suggestions made by NOAA were used by the writers and director, the end result was pure entertainment and not realistic.
11/18/2004