(Undated)– This week marks the observance of Severe Weather Awareness Week in the State of Iowa. Peter Rogers is a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls. He says it’s a good time to brush up on how to protect ourselves when severe weather threatens…
“Every year in late March we talk about severe weather preparedness. This is Severe Weather Awareness Week for both Iowa and Nebraska, the week of March 25th, and it’s just an opportunity for us to remind folks that, hey, severe weather season, summer season, is right around the corner and there’s a number of different things that we want people to prepare for leading into that season. Specifically with regards to preparedness actions that they potentially can take and then just making sure they are familiar with different safety protocols if and when severe weather strikes their area.”
Rogers says there are special themes for each day this week. Today (Mon.) it’s lightning…
“Here in the Upper Midwest everything is fair game except for hurricanes and there’s one thing that people may not think about often but everybody experiences it every single summer is lightning. We don’t actually issue any kind of warning information on lightning alone because if that was the case your phone would be buzzing all summer long because every thunderstorm by definition has lightning in it. But still very dangerous, potentially deadly in certain situations. We always talk about when thunder roars, go indoors. So if you can hear the thunder you’re close enough to be struck by lightning. You don’t have to be actively getting rained on or hailed on. And then once you’re inside, stay in that safe place for about 30 minutes until there’s no more thunder to be heard and then you’re safe to be able to go inside. Certainly we want you to get indoors if at all possible. If that’s not an option then a vehicle is still better than standing out in the open, and, I think it’s pretty common knowledge that you don’t want to be under anything tall, either, like a tower or a tree.”
Topics for the rest of the week include tornado safety on Tuesday, preparedness on Wednesday, hail and wind safety on Thursday, and flood safety on Friday.
There will be a statewide tornado drill on Wednesday morning and tornado sirens will sound in most communities.
