Avian Flu Diary: When Spring Has Violently Sprung

# 5476

Last week, when I was on the road to Missouri, a long-lived tornado crossed the state of Florida wreaking havoc and damaging hundreds of homes and businesses.

I was lucky. I came home to find a large tree branch draped carelessly across my carport roof, and a window screen on my Florida room partially dislodged, but no other damage.

Spring, for much of the nation, is tornado season.

March, April, May and June generally see the strongest, and most frequent tornadoes, but these violent windstorms can occur any time of the year - particularly in the south.

All but a small part of the United States is vulnerable to these storms, but the strongest of these storms generally occur in an area we call Tornado Alley (below), which runs from middle Texas north though Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.

This is the area where you will generally find the largest and most powerful tornadoes; the F5 wedge type.

Fortunately, much of the mid-west is sparsely populated, and so the number of tornado deaths that occur here are actually less than in other areas of the country.

As you can see by the above graphic, severe weather reports for the first three months of 2011 are clustered mostly in the Southeastern states.

This region, dubbed `Dixie Alley’ actually sees more tornado fatalities in an average year than the more famous `tornado alley’ due to its higher population density, even though the storms tend to be smaller (F1 to F3).

A look at severe weather reports for all of 2010 shows that practically every part of the country saw severe storms (tornado, wind, hail) last year.

Which means that everyone should already have an emergency plan in place, have a battery-operated weather radio, and be prepared to seek shelter immediately should conditions threaten.

Whether you are in the path of a storm, or merely fascinated by severe weather, the internet provides many ways to track severe storms. Today I thought I’d share a few of my favorites.

The first stop should always be NOAA’s Storms Prediction Center, where multi-day outlooks of severe weather are constantly being updated.

Severe (non-tropical) weather is monitored daily by the Storms Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. On their website you will find the current and forecasted areas of severe weather.

Potential for severe weather today (April 8th, 2011) as forecast by the Storms Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

While today appears to relatively quiet, by Sunday the picture changes in the upper Midwest, where a moderate threat is forecast three days from now.

A clickable U.S. map that will link you to the regional NOAA weather forecast offices can be found here, or by clicking the graphic below.

Another resource is NOAA WEATHER RADIO.

Once thought of as mainly a source of local weather information, it has now become an `All-Hazards' alert system as well.

In order to receive these broadcasts, you need a special receiver. Many of these radios have a special `Tone Alert', and will begin playing once they receive a special alert signal from the broadcaster.

Like having an emergency kit, a first aid kit, and a portable AM/FM radio - having a weather radio is an important part of being prepared.

Although not a substitute for having your own emergency weather radio, you can listen to NOAA weather radio alerts online, coming from most areas of the country.

When a tornado or severe storm warning has been issued, I will sometimes check to see if local TV stations in the threat area are broadcasting live on the Internet. Cities with a long history of severe storms often break into regular programming for with non-stop coverage.

A Google Search will often provide you with several local TV stations that may be streaming video. KFOR.COM in Oklahoma City usually goes live once tornado warnings are issued. Other stations you might try in the OKC area are KOCO.COM and KWTV.COM.

If streaming video is a bit too much for your internet connection, you might prefer to listen in to one of the hundreds of police/fire/EMS scanner feeds that are available online.

RadioReference is just one of several online portals for scanner feeds, but is the one I tend to use. Simply click on the maps to select the state, then county, that you wish to monitor.

But if your internet connection can handle it, you might find the live streaming video (and sometimes audio) from storm chasers in the field to be of interest. Once again there are several options here.

One of the biggest is Severe Studios, which often has more than a half dozen chasers streaming video simultaneously.

You may also wish to check out Storm Chaser TV, and often you’ll find Hurricane City’s live feed available on their site, or on USTREAM.

Of course, if you are in the path of the storm, you need to get off the Internet and down into your cellar or safe room. Hopefully today’s threat will turn out to be less serious than the forecast indicates.

For more information on how to prepare for emergencies, including severe weather, the following sites should be of assistance.