VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — It's what the 13News Now meteorology team does so well...tracking potential danger before that danger gets to you.
Before the tornado ripped through Great Neck in Virginia Beach Sunday evening, the weather team saw it coming.
"If you live Southern Points, or Forest Hills or Habersham Close or in Broad Bay Point Greens section, over on Bay Island, Alanton - any of those areas, you need to be taking cover now," warned chief meteorologist Jeff Lawson live over the air.
An EF 3 tornado was about to strike.
Shortly afterwards, one viewer tweeted to Lawson, "Thanks for keeping us safe."
When there is a threat of a tornado, 13 News Now meteorologists are required by the FCC to broadcast warnings over the air. A weather crawl across the TV screen is not enough. Sunday, that meant broadcasting live audio and radar over the NBA playoff game between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings
"We don't like to have to cut in and interrupt programming," Meteorologist Evan Stewart said.
But that mandate is only secondary to why they do break into regular programming. It's about a desire to keep viewers safe.
"As we saw in Virginia Beach, these storms can develop quickly and they can do a lot of damage - and our first goal is to protect lives and property," Stewart said.
Technology allows the 13 News Now team to pinpoint potential danger in specific neighborhoods.
"We're getting sweeps from radar every couple of minutes--so every time that radar sweep comes around, we get updated information so we can see where the center of storm and where strongest winds might be and yeah we can track almost right down to street level," Stewart pointed out.
Stewart adds the pay off comes when after the storm passes and no one is hurt or injured.