James Spann at Tuscaloosa Transportation Museum

ABC 33/40 meteorologist James Spann speaks about his experience reporting the historic April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak in Alabama as well as severe weather in the region and disaster preparedness at the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum in Tuscaloosa on May 30, 2013. (Ben Flanagan/al.com)

James Spann got tired of hearing the same question, over and over.



Anytime Alabama sees another severe weather event, the question comes in droves via Twitter, email and otherwise.



"Will this be like April 27th?"



"Of course, the right answer is no," Spann says via telephone. "If you do a study of climatology here, we had a day like that in April of 1974 and in March of 1932. They seem to happen about every 40 years, and that's why I call it generational. But all it takes is one, and if it comes down your street, that's your April 27th."



Most of all, Spann hopes people don't get hung up in the thought that if the state doesn't have 62 tornadoes on a given severe weather threat day, it's not a big deal and they don't pay attention.



After what happened nearly five years ago to the day in Alabama, when 252 people lost their lives in the generational series of tornadoes, Spann still struggles with the death toll. The ample warnings and solid physical science should have kept the number much lower, he says.



But for one reason or another, the toll remains the same, and the ABC 33/40 chief meteorologist can only learn more about the individuals who died in the storm, each fact more heartbreaking than the next about people whom he thinks should have lived to reflect five years later.



Just because he gets tired of hearing the question and wants people to understand all it takes is one tornado to ruin their own lives, Spann still answers "no." If it makes people feel better, it's the least he can do.



And while he's no doubt seen an increase in that awareness statewide since the occurrence, he also sees people letting their guards down. It's why he still drives county to county to talk to communities about severe weather safety and help people program their weather radios.



We talked to the Greenville, Ala., native about April 27, Tuscaloosa's transformation, advice he'd given aspiring storm-chasers and what people can do to stay ready in the event of severe weather threats.



How are you currently remembering April 27, 2011?



James Spann: The only number that matters to me is the final death count. You hear all these different numbers. We've really tried to work hard on that. The best number we could come up with was 252. That's the only number that matters to me. I'm still trying to process why that many people died. The physical science could not have been better. We had 62 tornadoes, and there was an excellent -- and I mean an excellent -- warning for all of those. How in the world could the loss of life be that high when the warnings and physical science was all so good? That's my struggle. I'm trying to study to see who these people are, the people that died. The more you learn about these people, it will tear your heart out. You had infants, senior adults, high income, low income...it crossed every socioeconomic line. There's no way the media could tell all these stories. It would take us years and years to do that. What I'm trying to do is just learn more about the people who died, and trying to be sure about what we need to fix so this doesn't happen again where you don't have that many people die in one day. I thought the death toll should have been 30. Two hundred and 22 people ought to be alive and walking around today. We've just got to stop these funerals. We've had some help from social scientists. All of our background is science and engineering. We have no training in human behavior. They've helped us out a lot, so we know a lot more now than we did five years ago, so hopefully we'll be better next time it happens.



When you weren't broadcasting, or when you were, when have you faced a serious weather event personally?



JS: With my eyes, I've only seen one tornado in my entire life. I was about 22-years-old. I was driving from Montgomery to Tuscaloosa and saw one moving away from me near Duncanville. It was a smaller tornado. I've been very fortunate. I've not had one bear down on me or my family or house. We've had a few times where we've had to evacuate the TV station, but I've never felt that I was in danger or people at work or my family were in danger, so I've been blessed.



You've used very strong language when talking about amateur storm chasing, how it's never ever a good idea. Just as a reminder, what is your message to anyone thinking of doing that?



JS: If you want to do it, that's fine, but you've got to be trained. If you go out without any training or knowledge...the car is a death trap. The two worst places to be are a car and a mobile home. And by putting yourself in a car, you are in extreme if not grave danger. What people think they can do is go out there and get some really cool video, put it up on YouTube and get some Google AdSense money. And unless you're doing 1-2 million views, you might get 30 or 40 bucks. Your life isn't worth that. If you make $1 million, your life is not worth that. What you need to do is don't be a cowboy, you need to go get trained, and preferably be trained over a series of years. So when you go out there, you'll know exactly what you're doing. You'll be in a safe place and not in danger.

When tornado or other storm videos go viral, have you seen that influence others to get out and try to get the next hot storm video? Is it a trend at all?

JS:

Oh sure. People do it for different reasons. Some people just do it for the thrill. Some do it where they think they can make a lot of money or they can sell it to TV stations and networks. They do it for profit. I think that, no doubt, it has encouraged a new generation of severe weather cowboys that don't have any idea what they're doing, and it's really dangerous. I'm very conflicted when you see these videos from untrained people. Obviously they can be of use in the science world. They can help us. But at the same time, it creates a really bad example for people. We've got the same problem with Brian Peters when we're streaming live on television. He's got a dash cam, and people are saying, 'You tell people don't drive, and you've got some guy out there driving.' What they don't understand is that Brian has trained 10,000 storm-spotters over the last 30 years. This is what he does, and he understands the nature of the beast and he knows how to be safe. And for those people, we want them out there. But there's no doubt there's been an increase in tornado cowboys in the last 10 years.

As a former Tuscaloosa resident and someone familiar with the city, how do you think the look and feel of the city has changed in the last five years?

JS:

I think people would go through there today and would have no idea that a tornado came through there. The high traffic spots look great. I was on McFarland today, and you look at all that development and all the buildings, and that's just fantastic. My concern is for the lower income parts of town and out toward Holt, some of these places where people don't travel everyday and maybe they've been a little ignored. But generally speaking, I think the rebuilding process has been fantastic. It will never look the same, but I don't like living in the past. I like looking to the future. I'm not the kind of guy that tries to relive my life on 15th Street working at that radio station. I'm all in for the changes, and I think Mayor Maddox has done an exemplary job of helping lead the city to go forward. I'm very proud of the people and how far they've come. You've got to remember how bad it was that day. People would not imagine how far we've come in five years if they can go back and look at that flyover video the next morning. It's just stunning.

Do you sense a higher level of awareness among Alabamians since 2011? What does that part of it look like five years later?

JS:

Traditionally after a big tornado, we have a few years where there's enhanced awareness of the danger and being ready and prepared. I still think we have that. At some point, it's going to wear off. When you don't have a tornado for 10 years, you don't think about it. But I still think it's there today. I'd say it's starting to fade. The way I can tell how people react when we go on television. We've had some severe weather this year, and of course, whenever we go on television, we're going to make somebody mad. For about a year or two after April 27, we got very little negative reaction. When we went on television, people understood. They were inconvenienced by the fact that they couldn't watch their program. We've noticed the level of hate mail is rising again. That's not a good thing. At some point, it's going to wear off. What we just hope is that people take away the main messages. We know a lot of people died because of the siren mentality. People know that. They've done a good job getting apps on their phones and weather radios. I think people have started to put stuff in their safe places -- helmets, whistles, air horns, shoes. These are simple things, but we know it cost a lot of lives, and we had a lot of problems back on April 27. I think there's an enhanced awareness, but it's probably starting to fade a little bit. We had to cut off an NBA basketball game on Christmas day. Within about 10 seconds, in an email, some guy said I should have been aborted by a coat-hanger. We had to cut off "Grey's Anatomy." That was pretty rough. That's just the society we live in. Still, I think most people are pretty aware and appreciate it.

My main concern, every time we have a severe weather threat, everybody asks the same question. They say, "Will this be like April 27?" And of course, the right answer is no. If you do a study of climatology here, we had a day like that in April of 1974 and in March of 1932. They seem to happen about every 40 years, and that's why I call it generational. But all it takes is one, and if it comes down your street, that's your April 27. And I hope people don't get hung up in this thing where if we don't have 62 tornadoes, it's not a big deal and they don't pay attention. The next year, we had a tornado in Centerpoint and Clay that killed a precious 16-year-old girl. That's their April 27. That's one thing I hope, we get off of that question and just be ready for all the severe weather episodes we have. Having severe weather threats here is like having heat waves in summer. They're going to happen in the spring and fall. We just have to be ready. We can't just wait until the next super-duper, high-risk deal. We've got to be ready for all of them.

Throughout the month of April, AL.com will be looking back five years later at the April 27, 2011 tornadoes that ravaged Alabama.

Follow James Spann on Twitter. Listen to his "WeatherDrains" podcast.



