Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Severe Weather Awareness Week

Severe Weather Awareness Week runs through this Friday. It is during this time you should think about your safety plans and actions in case a severe thunderstorm or possible tornado heads for your neighborhood.

When we mention the word "severe", what does that mean? Well, it means a storm that contains any of the following.

1.) A tornado.
2.) Hail of 1" in diameter (size of quarters) or larger.
3.) Damaging wind gusts in excess of 50 knots or 58 mph.

If a thunderstorm produces any one of those three items listed above, a storm is classified is severe. While you only need one of those to occur, sometimes storms can contain multiple entities.

There are a couple of things to take note of this week.

  • All schools should do a tornado drill on Wednesday, February 23rd, between 9:00 and 9:30am. It is during this time all school districts in East Texas should do a mock tornado drill as if it were the real deal. By practicing this drill, all faculty and students will be prepared in case a tornado warning is issued where you school is located come this spring.
  • If you are interested in becoming a storm spotter and relaying information to KTRE and the National Weather Service, there will be a SKYWARN Storm Spotter Training session this Thursday, February 24th at 6pm at the Commisioner's Court in Downtown Lufkin.

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