ATLANTA, Ga. — A tornado warning for Butts and Jasper counties forced an Atlanta television station to break into its Georgia-Alabama football telecast for more than 16 minutes Saturday night, drawing viewer complaints that the meteorologist later addressed on air and online.
Meteorologist Ashley Kramlich appeared in a lower-right box with radar behind her late in the second quarter, with about 40 seconds left in the half and Alabama driving while trailing by a field goal. She apologized for the interruption but called the storm a life-threatening situation for people in the warned counties southeast of Atlanta.
The game audio was replaced by her updates while the live action continued in a split screen. During the break-in, Alabama scored to take a 14-10 halftime lead, and the coverage stretched through on-field interviews with coaches Kirby Smart and Kalen DeBoer. Georgia beat Alabama 20-17.
Kramlich said in a Sunday broadcast explanation and a social media video that interrupting a football game was the last thing she wanted to do as a fan herself, but that safety has to come first when a tornado warning is issued. She said stations have a responsibility to bring potentially life-saving information when severe weather threatens communities.
Some viewers accepted the first alert and objected mainly to how long the voiceover continued after the warning was already on screen. Others said the repeated updates felt like overkill once the crawl and alert tones were active.
The episode became part of a noisy weekend around the top-10 matchup, which Georgia won on the road in Tuscaloosa as tornado risk lingered over parts of the Atlanta viewing area.
