Get off the TV – Live Coverage and Viewership During Tornado Warnings

Broadcast meteorologists have the ability to reach a wide audience instantaneously during severe weather, immediately covering up any originally scheduled programming to relay life-saving weather information. Studies show a significant portion of the population under threat of severe weather tune to local media to get warning information. Using ratings data gathered during newscasts and other normally scheduled programming, we can see the ways viewership fluctuates compared to normal programming when severe weather warnings are issued. Using severe weather events affecting weekdays over the past three years in the Cedar Rapids/Waterloo TV market, we can see consistent signals of people jumping to their television set to get weather warning data, almost always topping any show normally scheduled. The viewership increases when there is live video of the storm and when storms affect more populated counties.