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The University of Maryland warned students and staff on the College Park campus late Monday afternoon: "A tornado warning has been launched for the UMD campus … Look for a shelter immediately." , avoid the windows.
According to the National Weather Service, there was no indication of a tornado, with showers associated with the remains of Hurricane Florence having passed through Prince George County.
"We have nothing to do with that," said Jim Lee, meteorologist responsible for the weather forecast office in Baltimore / Washington. "We have not issued a tornado warning."
A spokeswoman for the University of Maryland Police Department, who sent the alert at 5:36 pm, said the authorities had been warned of a possible meteorologist tornado on AccuWeather.com. About 30 minutes later, campus police sent an alert canceling the warning.
"The rotation has shifted north," they said.
AccuWeather produces its own forecasts but is not responsible for official watches or warnings of severe weather; it is the domain of the meteorological service. But the university is using the Pennsylvania-based meteorological company to assess weather threats for closer concentration on its campus, said the university police sergeant. Rosanne Hoaas.
"Although weather-related incidents are often reported in large geographic areas, AccuWeather targets the specific footprint of our campus community," she said in a statement.
The National Weather Service's tornado warnings are often based on radar images. They recognize hook-shaped tornadoes that may appear on radars in areas where funnel clouds form. Warnings are generally issued in areas covering about 10 square kilometers, depending on the size and speed of storms.
Jonathan Porter, vice president of AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions, said the company's meteorologists saw a "strong rotation signature" on the radar that meteorologists "could produce a tornado at any time." and he called it "a very dangerous weather situation".
Based on the criteria established by the company with the university, they decided that a tornado warning should be issued at College Park, Porter said.
"In some cases, the criteria may be different from those that the government could use to issue tornado warnings to the public," Porter said.
While the meteorological service did not issue a tornado alert in Maryland on Monday, it issued a tornado watch south of Baltimore, including in the counties of Anne Arundel and Prince George and throughout southeastern Ontario. Maryland. He canceled the watch just after 8 pm
Porter stated that it was not yet clear whether a tornado had actually developed or had caused damage.
"It may take a while for this kind of report to come in," he said. "We are always watching for damage reports that may have been produced by this particular cell."
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