James Spann, a television meteorologist in Birmingham, delivered a powerful message to students at Athens High School on Tuesday.

“I went through some bad times, and some of you have as well. Some of you have gone through some great times, some of you are blessed beyond your wildest imagination,” said Spann. “Everything that’s happened to you, it’s gonna bring you to one or two days in your life that will define who you are in terms of your career, and the morning it happens, you often don’t even know it’s the morning that is going to define you.”

For Spann, the first of those moments happened in 1974. He volunteered as an amateur radio operator for three days following a tornado outbreak. They sent him to Jasper to operate a radio link back to Birmingham.

“I saw things that changed my life,” said Spann. “I saw things a 17-year-old should never see. The graphic nature of the wounds, those people coming in from that tornado outbreak.”

He went on to say, “it haunted me. I had nightmares for two years, I would wake up with a cold sweat. I’ve not talked about it publicly. I’ve not talked about it privately, and I never will.”

Spann told the students he had to experience that in 1974 to prepare him for all he would encounter throughout his career as a meteorologist.

Decades later, Spann would experience such an event again, only this time as a meteorologist.

In April 2011, a tornado outbreak spanning across 26 states devastated the U.S. 62 tornadoes swept across Alabama, claiming the lives of more than 240 people.

He explained “everything you wanted to see for a Severe Weather Day was in place, and it was forecast pretty well.”

The Storm Prediction Center could not have drawn a better outlook for that day, he explained. “We had a high risk over the northern half of the state where most of the tornadoes occurred,” he went on to say.

The morning saw damaging straight line winds and embedded tornadoes claiming the lives of five individuals. “That event alone was a tragedy,” said Spann, but that wouldn’t be the end of the weather threat and subsequent loss of life.

“I’ll be honest with you, we did not expect the morning event to be that bad,” he said. With that, he gave a lesson on humility.

“There’s a lot of things we don’t know … we didn’t know it was going to be that bad that morning,” he said. “Humility is a part of my science.”

The afternoon saw supercell thunderstorms with violent, long-lasting tornadoes.

Spann could tell from the models they were “going to have immense human suffering.”

One supercell storm originated in Newton, Miss., and paralleled I-59 through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and continued through Georgia, until it dissipated in the North Carolina mountains. The tornado briefly lifted, but another tornado touched down in Webster Chapel and continued on the trajectory.

It was a “violent long track supercell storm responsible for a lot of deaths,” he said.

During the outbreak “252 people died, and that’s inexcusable”, said Spann. “These were precious people that died.”

“This affected all people groups, and we’ve got to do better,” he said.

He took time to show photos of numerous people who died across Alabama during the 2011 outbreak and subsequent tornadoes over the years, telling each of their stories. He explained to the students the deaths weren’t just numbers, but were real people who lived lives just like their own.

He told stories of entire families whose lives were taken by severe weather events.

Spann has published a book telling the stories of individuals killed by severe weather. “If I didn’t write that book, I’d be haunted every day until the day I die,” he said.

He explained that people often had up to 45 minutes to seek shelter before the tornado hit them and meteorologists didn’t understand why so many people died.

They found that many people don’t seek shelter until they hear a tornado siren.

“If that’s your mentality, your life is in danger,” he said.

The World War One era air raid sirens aren’t made to be heard inside of buildings and can only be heard within a certain distance outside. These systems, which are often not maintained, are prone to failure.

“These things have never been effective at reaching people inside a house, a building, a church, a school, any kind of inside structure, and even outside they reach a limited number of people,” he said.

In Jan. 23, 2012, a teenage girl was killed during an early morning tornado. The father told local news he didn’t hear the tornado siren.

“That mentality killed his daughter, the thought that you’re going to hear some air raid siren before a tornado, and most people in Alabama believe that,” said Spann.

He went on to say, “I want to climb these poles, take them down and burn them, that way you know that you will not hear them because they don’t exist anymore.”

He encouraged students to keep the Wireless Emergency Alerts on their phones turned on and to invest in a weather radio.

Many people disable the Wireless Emergency Alerts because “they don’t want to receive amber alerts.” He explained the emergency alert will send a “loud tone out that will wake up the dead,” and could be the difference between life and death.

A fail safe option for receiving weather alerts is a weather radio, when programmed properly.

“When there’s a tornado emergency, you lose your cellular service and your phone becomes worthless. It’s a brick,” said Spann. “Only about 8 percent of all families have a weather radio which is absolutely insane.”

Most TV news stations and Emergency Management Agencies will assist owners in programming a weather radio.

Many people who die during a tornado are killed by “blunt force trauma to the skull, neck, head region” and putting on a helmet “enhances your chances of staying alive and reduces your risk of being seriously injured,” he explained.

“There’s blood on my hands” from the April 2011 outbreak because during “all those hours and hours and hours of coverage not one time did I tell people to put on a helmet, and I feel shame for that,” he said.

One reason people fail to listen to severe weather warnings is due to false alarms and crying wolf.

“In 2011, the false alarm ratio was 83 percent. 83 percent of tornado warnings were false alarms,” said Spann. Now, only 20 percent of tornado warnings are false alarms, he said.

“We went back to the basics” to better understand tornado producing storm systems, he said. With advancements in technology and better communication with professional storm spotters, weather stations are experiencing far fewer false alarms.

Spann, who has been in the industry since 1978, has seen his share of devastation and warns people of the consequences of failing to take severe weather threats seriously.

“We have to take these threats seriously, okay, this is life and death we are talking about here. You have to listen when we are telling you to take shelter,” he said.

Spann told students that, even with all the devastation he witnesses, he loves what he does.

“I’ve not worked a day in my life, because I love this. I cannot wait to get to work today and tell a story about weather,” said Spann. “I hope for all of you, you’ll have that opportunity” to have a career that doesn’t feel like work.

He went on to say, “the earlier you can figure out life is about serving others, the earlier life gets good.”