Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Two months after the "Great Blizzard" of 1978, WZZM-TV 13 in Grand Rapids dedicated the station's half-hour public affairs program 'West Michigan Update' to spring severe weather awareness. 'The Perils of Spring' is a dialogue between host Jim Riekse with broadcast meteorologists Craig James and Bill Steffen. Intermixed as stock footage are portions from the 1975 documentary 'The Day of the Killer Tornadoes' that chronicled the April 3-4, 1974 Super Outbreak. The special also supplemented the NOAA and National Weather Service spotters guide film 'Detecting Tornadoes' narrated by Fort Worth, Texas NWS meteorologist Al Moller. That film, produced in 1977, was relatively new to all emergency management, media and the public. This was one of the earliest television broadcasts of the 'Detecting Tornadoes' film in the United States.
West Michigan severe weather seasonal activity had been consistently active in the decades leading up to this special. 1953, 1965, 1967-68, 1974 and 1977 had all produced some form of substantial significant tornado or regional outbreak in the broadcast market. Public severe weather awareness by way of television was becoming more informative and competitive amongst local stations as well, with live conventional weather radar being a vital tool for both warnings and ratings. While primitive by today's standards, many of the points made in this special still remain valid in this very matter of fact, non-sensational 1978 presentation.
Video © 1978 WZZM-TV, All Rights Reserved.
Two months after the "Great Blizzard" of 1978, WZZM-TV 13 in Grand Rapids dedicated the station's half-hour public affairs program 'West Michigan Update' to spring severe weather awareness. 'The Perils of Spring' is a dialogue between host Jim Riekse with broadcast meteorologists Craig James and Bill Steffen. Intermixed as stock footage are portions from the 1975 documentary 'The Day of the Killer Tornadoes' that chronicled the April 3-4, 1974 Super Outbreak. The special also supplemented the NOAA and National Weather Service spotters guide film 'Detecting Tornadoes' narrated by Fort Worth, Texas NWS meteorologist Al Moller. That film, produced in 1977, was relatively new to all emergency management, media and the public. This was one of the earliest television broadcasts of the 'Detecting Tornadoes' film in the United States.
West Michigan severe weather seasonal activity had been consistently active in the decades leading up to this special. 1953, 1965, 1967-68, 1974 and 1977 had all produced some form of substantial significant tornado or regional outbreak in the broadcast market. Public severe weather awareness by way of television was becoming more informative and competitive amongst local stations as well, with live conventional weather radar being a vital tool for both warnings and ratings. While primitive by today's standards, many of the points made in this special still remain valid in this very matter of fact, non-sensational 1978 presentation.
Video © 1978 WZZM-TV, All Rights Reserved.
