Last Sunday, the phones lit up when we interrupted a pro basketball game several times for weather bulletins.  Some people were upset that we were interrupting a close game unnecessarily.  And several of the callers were less than nice in explaining that they weren't interested in weather that wasn't affecting them.  Granted, a large base of our viewership is in the Wichita metro area, but our signal serves practically the entire state... not just Wichita.  We have a duty to keep everyone in the state informed.

The storms that moved through last Sunday had a history of producing tornadoes.  At the time, severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect for several counties, but not a tornado warning.  However, with 6 seconds to go in a 1-point game, something on the radar caught weatherman Blake Smith's eye.  One of the storms over Western Sumner County and Eastern Harper County appeared as though it was becoming very dangerous.

Blake broke into the game to let people know that this storm appeared to have winds in excess of 70 miles-per-hour and large hail that could be damaging.  As it turns out, what was going on during that time is pictured at left.

Fortunately, nobody was killed or injured because of this tornado.  It touched down west of Wellington, near the town of Milan.  So, I ask you the viewer, what's more important?  This tornado that could have killed someone or a pro basketball game?

We really don't like interrupting programming, especially during sports events.  However, when it comes to life-or-death situations such as this, I'd rather err on the side of caution rather than find out later that this tornado (that wasn't clear on radar) had just killed someone who had no warning.  And I truly believe that if it were you living in the area where this happened, you'd want the same thing.