Twin States Weather Blog

Coverage Planning...

..Today has been a busy day, filled to the brim with planning. Since we are understaffed right now, WJHG (a sister Gray station in Panama City) has sent us their chief meteorologist, Jason Kelley. Jason has years of experience along the Gulf Coast, and will assuredly be a major asset in our coverage of the storm. He is also an Alabama native, so he knows the area very well..

..Thanks to Baron Services, we will be using some great equipment for our coverage. By late Sunday, we'll roll out a new look radar system brought here for coverage of Katrina! Be sure to check it out..

..We are also going to have a satellite truck and additional reporter from our sister station in Dothan, Alabama. This will allow us to bring you live shots of the storm from almost anywhere in the area. This will help us to show you exactly what the storm is doing in our community..

..Planning our coverage for Hurricane Katrina continues this evening. There will probably be changes fast and furious, and we'll just roll with the punches. Here's the current plan, dependent of course on how the weather changes.

SUNDAY:

I will be doing live cut-ins during Good Morning America, beginning at 7:00 AM and lasting one hour.

We will then begin hourly Katrina updates around noon. These will continue through Sunday evening and into Sunday night.

We will have a special half-hour newscast Sunday evening at 5:30. This will be a complete look at Katrina and how the storm is affecting Mississippi, Alabama, and other coastal areas. Preparedness information will be emphasized, so don't miss it!

Newscenter 11 News at 10 will be heavily geared towards the hurricane. After the news concludes, we will be doing hourly updates on the progress of the storm all night Sunday night.

MONDAY and TUESDAY:

Good Morning Meridian will be an hour of information about the hurricane. Preparedness information, storm updates, and information about coastal areas will all be discussed - among other things.

We will continue our hourly updates throughout Monday, and will eventually begin "wall to wall" coverage of Katrina when conditions warrant. This will likely come sometime Monday evening, but that is subject to change as conditions dictate.

We will stay "wall to wall" (no programming, only weather and news about Hurricane Katrina) throughout the duration of the storm. We will wrap up our coverage sometime Tuesday, whenever the storm has passed.

..While we hope for the best, we have planned for the worst. Your preparations should be finished in the near future. The storm is speeding up a bit, and we could begin seeing some spiral banding as early as late Sunday afternoon or evening. The worst of it will arrive during the afternoon and evening hours Monday. Renny Vandewege will be along shortly to post an update on the specifics of the 10 pm update from the National Hurricane Center..

posted by WTOK Weather Staff @ 9:23 PM