Alabama tornado: Weather forecasters credited with saving lives as Trump visit to survey damage

Meteorologists calmly tell audiences their lives are in danger ahead of major tornado

Meteorologists have been credited with saving lives ahead of a major tornado in Alabama. (Scott Fillmer/Reuters)

A team of local meteorologists have been celebrated for potentially saving lives in Alabama ahead of a major tornado.

Josh Johnson, the chief meteorologist at WSFA-TV, anchored a live news segment on Sunday night along with the outlet’s team of meteorologists, including Eric Snitil, Amanda Curran and Lee Southwick.

The team decided preemptively to warn audiences of the tornado, Mr Johnson wrote in a statement to Washington Post after a video clip of the segment went viral.

The clip shows the meteorologists calmly warning Alabama residents their lives were in danger.

“I’ll tell you what, your life may be in danger,” Mr Johnson says during the broadcast. “Rather, your life IS in danger.”

In his statement to the Post, the meteorologist said he knew “people were not going to survive this tornado.”

“That is a terrible, terrible feeling,” he wrote. “But, it was important to compartmentalize my emotions so that I could invest one hundred percent of my mental and emotional effort into communicating the danger the tornado presented.”

He added, “My role, and the role of my team, was to minimise that death toll to the best of our ability.”

Other meteorologists across the country have shared the clip online, celebrating the team’s calm, albeit informative segment on the major destruction that was headed towards the region.

“I can only imagine how many lives were saved by Josh, Lee, and Eric,” Paul Gross, a local meteorologist in Detroit, wrote to the Post.

He added, “This is the moment that all broadcast meteorologists hope they never face, but learn and train their entire careers to excel at.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is headed to Alabama today to meet with residents and survey the damage.

The president tweeted earlier this week that “FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes”.

Read more from The Independent on the Alabama tornadoes here.