Severe Weather Awareness Week begins Monday, and meteorologists with the National Weather Service want residents to take the time to be prepared for all severe weather hazards.
On KVOE’s Talk of Emporia last week, meteorologist Chance Hayes of the Wichita office said preparation — Monday’s focus — is the most important component of severe weather readiness.
Meteorologist Chad Omitt of the Topeka office continued the Weather Service’s recent emphasis point of having multiple ways to get severe weather alerts. He says mobile phones are now a big way to get that information.
Neither Omitt nor Hayes hesitated when asked if they see underrated severe weather risks. Hayes says people tend to ignore the potential damage from straight-line winds.
Lightning is an underrated risk for Omitt. So is flooding.
Both say they are watching projections for the upcoming season, which follows three straight years of abnormally low tornadic activity for the state. Hayes says there are some parallels to the 2012 season, which was among the state’s most active tornado seasons on record, and Omitt says being in the second year of a La Nina pattern — where the surface waters of the Central Pacific Ocean are cooler than normal — often trends towards a more active season, but both say nothing is guaranteed with the long-term projections.
After Monday’s focus on preparedness, Tuesday’s focus will be on tornadoes — including the statewide tornado drill at 10 am. Lyon County has not participated in the statewide drill for years because of the local testing schedule at noon Mondays, and it will not participate this year, either. The focus changes to lightning safety Wednesday, hail and wind safety Thursday and flood safety Friday. Information is online at www.weather.gov/top and www.weather.gov/ict.
Once again, KVOE News will keep you updated whenever severe weather is a concern or is underway. We’ll have updates on air and online at KVOE.com, as well as instant alerts through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Once again, our volunteer network of Storm Team spotters will send in reports so there’s “ground truth” information whenever severe weather strikes.
