My favorite meteorological blogger, Mike Smith, has a few things to say about the Emergency Alert System …

Is there anything more ridiculous than the government’s Emergency Alert System (EAS)? It is supposed to tell us if there is important weather or news. But, broadcasters already do that.

Last night, we had lots of damage from thunderstorms in south central Kansas. But, the KWCH-TV coverage of the storm got cut off by the “required weekly EAS test.” The audio was cut and the EAS crawl visually overwhelmed the important storm warning at the bottom of the screen.

But, we need it in a national crisis, right? It was not activated on September 11. Do you really believe Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, won’t cover a story bigger than September 11??

… the “disease” of lightning …

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tell us men are six times more likely to be killed by lightning than women. Of course, meteorologists have known this for decades.

Okay, but why is the CDC even doing this work? Here is an article from 2009 that reaches the same conclusions. And, one from AccuWeather in 2011 with the same information.

Last time I checked, neither bacteria nor virus nor fungus were part of the composition of lightning. So, it is hardly a “disease.”

We keep hearing the federal government is short of money but there sure seems to be a lot of duplication, mission-creep, and reporting the obvious.

… and the difference between what the feds think is important and what actually is important:

With all of the global warming, NSA, TSA nonsense going in Washington, as usual, our government is focused on the wrong things. Rather than spending money on re-re-determining men get killed by lightning more often than women, let’s focus on the huge threats for which we need government coordination:

Pry, Cooper, and former CIA Director James Woolsey have been recently demanding that Washington prepare the nation’s electric grid for an EMP, either from the sun or an enemy’s nuclear bomb. They want the 2,000-3,000 transformers in the grid protected with a high-tech metal box and spares ready to rebuild the system. Woolsey said knocking out just 20 would shut down electricity to parts of the nation “for a long time.” …

Just two weeks ago, we had a dangerous “near miss.”

Imagine living in 1880 without the 1880’s infrastructure: Horses, grain milled by a stream-driven mill, no modern medicines, etc. That is what we would have to deal with — for months — if this occurs.

One of the comments on Smith’s EAS observations:

I work at a radio station and I’ve been cut off live on the air trying to announce a tornado warning by the EAS system giving a “warning”.

That is obviously contrary to the intent of the EAS. Then again, as the New York Times reported in 2002, “No president has ever used the current [EAS] system or its technical predecessors in the last 50 years, despite the Soviet missile crisis, a presidential assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, major earthquakes and three recent high-alert terrorist warnings.” That statement remains accurate 11 years later. There has been only one nationwide EAS test, which didn’t go too well.

If the electromagnetic pulse of which Smith wrote fried everything electronic, no one would be able to hear a presidential message, or any other kind of message unless delivered by someone with a loud voice.