As we get further into the fall season, the National Weather Service in Paducah is putting out the word to prepare now, as we also enter into our Fall Severe Weather Season.
In a Facebook Live event held to kick-off their Fall Severe Weather Awareness Campaign, the National Weather Service was joined by emergency management and first responders from across the region. Warning Coordinator Meteorologist Christine Wielgos encouraged people to allows have multiple ways of receiving warnings—especially at night—and stay tuned to your trusted weather and news sources.
She says every severe weather event is different, which means it’s always going to be different when it comes to warnings and watches.
Warrick County Emergency Management Director Matt Gable says you can’t depend on sirens for your notification—those sirens are for those outdoors only, not for warning people inside.
Lead Forecaster Keith Cooley says weather forecasting is always a tricky science, and that just becomes even more so during the fall-months. He says they try their best to give as much advance warning as possible for future severe weather events, but often times, those details can change all the way up until the day of the event.
Severe weather ticks up during the fall months for the same reason it does in the spring—warm and cold temperatures are battling for dominance, bringing with them moisture and energy into the atmosphere that primes it just right for severe weather. But what makes fall time storms and tornadoes so dangerous is that they have a higher likelihood of happening at night time, when people are sleeping and they’re harder to track.
Families are encouraged to think about acquiring a battery-operated weather radio, and taking the time now to go over your family emergency plans, in the event of severe weather.