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[Okiebenz]

On a side note I have apparently started up a sh*t storm over on Toilet Paper Residue (as Swoosh likes to refer to that place as) over this. lol
[/quote]

Ok I give up, what is Toilet Paper Residue?

[Duelist]

^ Theme Park Review

[Okiebenz]

As far as closing parks when there might be a chance of weather, what you would end up with then is not only massive lost revenue, but lots of people PO'd because they closed the park.  It is a no win situation and you can't protect everyone from every possible thing that might happen.  If folks are at a park and weather approaches, they need to take a certain amount of personal responsibility, but, we know that will probably never happen. I will say if I was there and depending where I was in the park, I would not be rushing to the exit, I would get out of the way like someone else said and maybe hunker down in that tunnel going to TNT.

[Lampie]

SDCfan88, I'm assuming you are advocating for closing parks/large outdoor events based on NOAA's SPC forecast. would a marginal risk be enough to have them closed or would you say it has to be a higher risk than that? what do they do when they open and there wasn't a risk for that day but in the morning update at 11 am there is now a risk? I can see both sides of this, I think there should be some level of threat that they close the park for, I'm just not sure what an appropriate threshold is. I follow severe weather pretty close, covered severe weather for the radio station I worked at in college, and live in Joplin.

I hope SDC will take some steps to make the park safer in the event of severe weather(signs designating shelter spaces and building some shelters into future buildings)

[Duelist]

I would think it would have to be a High Risk of severe weather to close the park and that probably wouldn't even happen.  There was a High Risk of severe weather during the 50th anniversary celebration weekend (May 2010).  They had a special show that afternoon at Echo Hollow and no severe weather happened. I think they weigh the odds of a tornado hitting the City and decide it's not enough to close.  The Dollywood delayed opening was justified since severe storms were expected to hit at park opening but that is a rare occasion.  They do need to have a better plan on dealing with severe weather and designated shelters are the answer in my opinion.

[sdcfan88]

Without dragging this out into a similar argument trying to explain myself like on the other site, I simply think the best rule of thumb is to coordinate with local school districts which carefully consider whether they should close or delay class for the day. Yes its only on higher end risk days they choose to do that. Nothing could happen but the reason the forecasters have various risk levels is due to the probabilities that something could happen are more likely under special circumstances which is why the Moderate or High Risk/Particularly Dangerous Situation watches get posted.
(like today there's an unprecedented Moderate Risk up in IA/WI/MN for wind and tornadoes with snow still on the ground) Schools have already cancelled and/or let out for the day in these areas.

I won't get deeply into it on here but there's also a lot of internal politics and proposals with the Weather Service wishing to redo the current warning and forecasting system as using the current terminology (Slight or Moderate) wording tends to downplay the situation in the general public's eyes, as "Moderate" is 4/5 on the numerical scale. Joplin happened on a Moderate Risk day. https://twitter.com/TimBuckleyWX/status/1471161208883531781?s=20

Also regarding the above, yes that was in 2010 but subsequent events such as the Joplin EF5 killing 150+ in 2011, the Branson Strip Tornado in 2012, and then the Ride The Ducks incident a couple years ago has started making people question if there should be more vigilance taken regarding severe weather.

[Duelist]

Don't get me wrong I do think you make a valid point.  And I looked at the conversation on TPR.  They had no call to do that.  And I personally probably wouldn't go to the park if a High Risk of severe weather was in effect.

[sdcfan88]

Eh lol it's all good. I'm over it. Some people simply lack reading comprehension and critical thinking. Not the first time I've seen it over there. I was just kinda surprised with the reactions considering recent events.

[MCLFLN]

By chance, anyone on the park tonight? (18th)

[Duelist]

^ We were there yesterday Friday December 17th.  The good news is it was a very light crowd and we walked right in to Home for Christmas, Dickens and the saloon show.  There were virtually no wait times for rides or restaurants.  The bad news is there were continuous thunderstorms almost the entire day.  Nothing severe but very heavy rain- the worst of any of my over 50 years of trips to SDC.  I don't think we could have gotten wetter if we had ridden Mystic River Falls without the boat.  The only rides open for the day were Fire in the Hole and the Flooded Mine unless there were some smaller rides open in the GE and FL.  We rode both FITH and FM twice.  The rain stopped for a few minutes around 7 and we did manage to get on the ONLY train ride of the day before another thunderstorm moved in.  I actually thought lightning might hit the tall Christmas tree.  We had friends that we got in with 1 free bring a friend pass and 2 other passes for $15 each.  They were going to go today but they checked the website and called yesterday for tickets but were told tickets were sold out for today.  My question is this: since they don't require Saturday reservations for OTC (they should) then how do they decide how many tickets to sell?  Without reservations they wouldn't know how many season pass holders were planning to come that day.  Anyway with them stopping ticket sales for today already by yesterday I'm thinking it is another crazy busy Saturday.

[MCLFLN]

That's what I was trying to find out... Is it insanely busy tonight and if so.. What time does it normally thin out?

[Duelist]

It usually clears out some after the first parade which I think was around 6:15.  I know when the park posts notices about high capacity days they say consider coming back at 6:30 pm.

[cowboy]

^  They were going to go today but they checked the website and called yesterday for tickets but were told tickets were sold out for today.  My question is this: since they don't require Saturday reservations for OTC (they should) then how do they decide how many tickets to sell?  Without reservations they wouldn't know how many season pass holders were planning to come that day.  Anyway with them stopping ticket sales for today already by yesterday I'm thinking it is another crazy busy Saturday.

My son and family were a bit worried about this too, most of his in-laws had purchased tickets several days in advance, and when he looked to buy tickets they were sold out online. I just told him to get to the park early and purchase at the park. They were able to purchase without any problems. Crowds were "insane" according to him but his 2-year old girls did everything (and rode the carousel like 30 times).

Jay

[chittlins]

one last thing - although it could happen anytime - a storm like this in December is usually pretty rare. NOT gonna get in a global warming discussion but a tornado watch in Dec is not a normal thing. The crowds in Dec are huge and any tornado at any time that were to direct strike the park is gonna result in a huge tragedy regardless.
Much like a huge earthquake at Magic Mountain or Disneyland would.

two more cents
Kevin

I have lived through numerous December outbreaks in Arkansas.

December 1987 West Memphis got nailed. The tornado barely misses( a quarter mile)  hitting Southland Greyhound Park with 7 to 9 thousand there. It levels everything on the east side of the same exit.  A week later, a record flood hit West Memphis. A week after that, the area got slammed with a winter storm that dumped over a foot of snow with drifts up to three feet followed by a prolonged deep freeze. That delayed school openings after Christmas break for at least a week and in to mid Jan.

[KevinLong]

I will amend my statement to be " not common" rather than rare.

Kevin