( CNN ) -- A junior professor drives his Doppler On Wheels mobile radar trucks through Moore , Oklahoma , less than 90 seconds after a tornado has torn a path of destruction through the city . Debris -- pieces of homes -- falls from the sky onto his truck . The scene is shocking ; wrecks of houses covered with dirt are all that is left in the twister 's path , and people are still huddled underground in shelters . The professor does n't know it yet , but he has just recorded 302 mph winds in the core of the vortex , the strongest wind speed ever measured anywhere in the world . He does n't learn until later that his wife and baby are in a shelter just 3 miles south of the tornado . The year was 1999 . The professor was me . Forty-six people died in tornadoes that day . I was chasing twisters with the DOW radars -- mobile weather radars driven up to tornadoes to make ultra-fine detail , 3-D maps of the winds and debris . I was trying to learn more about how tornadoes form , about how the winds cause destruction , with the optimistic hope that this would soon lead to better forecasts , longer warning lead times , fewer false alarms , fewer deaths . Tornado prediction is improving , scientists say . In 1999 , tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service an average of 13 short minutes before touchdown , and the false alarm rate was a whopping 75 % . The same remains essentially true now . And on Monday , my team and several other teams of really smart scientists with mobile radars and other equipment independently concluded -- incorrectly -- that southern Oklahoma , about 50 miles south of Moore , was at the highest risk of strong tornadoes . We all missed the opportunity to collect data in the Moore tornado . Opinion : We love and fear the Oklahoma skies . Why ? Why have n't scientists and all the smart forecasters been able to improve tornado forecasts ? And why , even when communities like Moore , Oklahoma , and Joplin , Missouri , ( devasted by a tornado in 2011 ) and others are warned sometimes 30 minutes ahead of time do so many people die ? We ca n't expect that there will be zero deaths from tornadoes , but can we do better ? For people to be safe from tornadoes , several things must happen . Scientists need to better understand the details of how tornadoes form , what events precede tornado formation , and how to better distinguish between thunderstorms that will make tornadoes and the overwhelming majority that will not . Then , forecasters need to be able to integrate that knowledge with observations , mainly from the national network of government weather surveillance radars and computer simulations to detect tornado precursors . Warnings need to be effectively communicated to those most at risk , using traditional methods such as sirens and weather radio and new media like Twitter . Finally , those who are warned need to heed these warnings and take immediate and effective precautions . Opinion : The making of a nightmare tornado . In recent years , scientists have learned much about tornadoes . The National Science Foundation 's DOWs have mapped the winds in nearly 200 different tornadoes , large and small , during birth and death , and while passing through towns . Scientists , supported by the foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , are analyzing nearly 30 terabytes of data , -- the equivalent of about 8,000 DVDs -- collected during VORTEX2 ( or Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes ) . VORTEX2 is the largest and most ambitious tornado study in history -- begun in 2009 -- in which 100 scientists in 50 scientific vehicles surrounded and probed tornadic super-cell thunderstorms . The formation of tornadoes is hard to predict , but we are making headway in identifying potential precursors . But , as our missed forecasts for Moore show , we have a long way to go . Even with the most sophisticated instruments , we ca n't tell even 20 minutes ahead of time whether a super-cell will become a tornado . Opinion : The extraordinary courage of teachers . The public and local governments have a critical role to play . No matter what warnings are issued by forecasters , every adult 's safety is ultimately in his or her own hands . One has to choose first to heed a warning . Then , critically , one has to have a safe place to go . In particular , buildings hosting the most vulnerable -- schools and hospitals -- need to have hardened shelters . Communities need to enforce the most basic and inexpensive good building practices so that roofs are attached securely to walls , which are anchored to foundations , so that buildings are more resistant to tornadoes . Moore in bull's-eye twice , science may know why . I believe that we are doing a pretty good job at all of this . While the tolls in Moore and Joplin are tragic , most people who lived and worked in even the worst swaths of destruction survived . During the 1999 tornado , for example , more than 400 homes were completely destroyed -- not just some walls down , but all walls down -- but only about 40 people died . Many thousands lived in the paths of the 2011 Joplin and 2013 Moore tornadoes , and only a small fraction died . But we can and should do much better . Tornado deaths can be reduced , if not to zero then still substantially . It will take the continued efforts of scientists , forecasters , builders , community planners and ultimately the people who live in the path of the most intensely destructive phenomenon . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joshua Wurman .
Joshua Wurman : Research has improved tornado tracking , but it remains imprecise , flawed . He says warning speed , false alarms change little . People still die . We must do better . He says synthesis of research , radar observation will help . Communications must improve . Comment: Public must heed warnings , build tornado-proof structures , to bring deaths to zero .