Tornado Week returns to The Weather Channel for 2013

One of Discovery Channel’s biggest programming events of the year is its annual Shark Week, which recognizes the combination of fear and fascination many viewers have with sharks. Likewise, The Weather Channel has realized that there is a similar mix of dread and compelling interest that people have with another force of nature — tornadoes — and the network has tapped into that with what has become its own most popular programming event, Tornado Week, which will return in 2013 starting Monday, April 29.

Tornado Week 2013 on The Weather Channel will include three new specials; new special episodes of Storm Riders; a special episode of Deadliest Space Weather about space tornadoes; and daily blocks of “tornado-centric series.” The Weather Channel says it will have content available on all of its platforms, including TV, weather.com, mobile and tablet, during Tornado Week.

According to David Clark, president of The Weather Channel network, “Tornado Week is destination viewing for weather enthusiasts. For those who share our awe of tornadoes’ astonishing power and destruction, they will be glued to our programming this week — and that’s as close to tornadoes as we ever want them to get.”

Tornado Week 2013 on The Weather Channel will include the following programs (all times ET):

Tornado 360 — April 29, 9pm. This 30-minute premiere special investigates the tornado super cell that formed in late April 2011 above Little Rock, Ark., and continued, as a series of twisters, to tear through Tuscaloosa and other Alabama towns. The program includes eyewitness testimony, graphics and animation to chronicle the disaster, its aftermath, the survivors and volunteer response. It reveals how a simple twist in the wind can develop into an EF-5 tornado, and how one storm created four EF-5 twisters in a single day — resulting in $11 billion in damage.

Storm Riders — April 30, beginning at 8:30pm. Three new 30-minute episodes premiere tonight. Maverick meteorologists Simon Brewer and Juston Drake return to continue their quest across the country to witness the most powerful storms.

The Truth About Twisters — May 1, 9pm. Ever heard that you should open the windows before a tornado? Or that a highway overpass is a safe tornado shelter? Whether handed down as folklore or spread by under-informed reports, misinformation about tornadoes has endured for generations. This one-hour special follows Hacking the Planet host John Rennie as he takes to the road, meeting scientists and survivors who offer demonstrations and eyewitness testimony to help separate tornado fact from fiction.

Deadliest Space Weather: Tornadoes — May 2, 9pm. This 30-minute encore episode shows that tornadoes are not just a deadly phenomenon on Earth. They also roar across the face of the sun and depths of the galaxy. In fact, the sun itself is home to giant tornadoes as large as the entire United States. This episode explores what would happen if a space tornado touched down on Earth and what it would take to protect us from destruction.

Live Programming: “Tornado Hunt” — Ongoing through April and May. Storm chaser and on-camera meteorologist Mike Bettes has returned to the heart of Tornado Alley for Tornado Hunt 2013, a live, multi-platform experience. Now in its fifth year, Tornado Hunt finds Bettes and an expert team of storm chasers again embarking on a journey through the Plains to capture tornadoes live on air, online, and for mobile and tablet. Users can keep track of the position of the Tornado Hunt vehicle during the past 24 hours with a real-time tracker at Weather Underground.

Along with its programming, The Weather Channel’s Tornado Central section on its website features current radar and areas under threat of severe weather, tornado safety and preparedness tips, tornado-themed stories and lists, and more.

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Credit: The Weather Channel

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