As most of us know severe weather season starts next month. I know it is a concern to us living here in tornado alley. Here is a weather site that can be of tremendous help. NWS Norman, Oklahoma - NWS Norman, Oklahoma Forecast Office Home Page It will take you to the national weather service website in Norman OK. It will provide you with information where ever you are. If you select a Doppler radar page, go to short range images, composite loop. This will give you real time storm movement. You can leave it up and click on automatic updates. It will also show watches and warnings on the radar screen in composite loop. It provides weather for all kinds of storms. Excellent for tracking winter storms too. This is where the majority of TV, radio and internet sites obtain most of there information. I know that they have there own meteorologists but they still obtain a lot of information from the National Weather Forecast Office. I do watch the TV (Rick Mitchell on KOCO-TV-5 in Oklahoma City) during severe weather but I also have a S.A.M.E. weather radio. I also have a scanner and monitor the local county storm spotters in the field. The Weather Channel can be delayed by up to 45 minutes in providing local information 31 years in disaster work definitely teaches you to be prepared.
Yep, it's right around the corner. I lived in New Orleans, Chicago, Philly and San Francisco to name a few places, when I was in the military (I retired in '94) and experienced floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and blizzards before moving to E.Texas. I long ago learned that once bad weather's on it's way or a disaster hits, it's usually too late to do and find all the things you should have taken care of earlier. Now is the time to take fix any potential problem areas - remove dead trees, make any necessary home/auto repairs, make sure the emergency generator has fuel and is in good working order, etc - plus check & update your emergency supplies and equipment. We have a few tornadoes pass through our area each year as well as the occasional hurricane/tropical storm every few years. I'd rather be prepared for the worst and not have it happen than hope for the best and... well, I'm sure you can guess the rest!
In another month or so, MY severe weather season will be at an end! However, I always keep several weather links up and know the weather channel on radio and TV. Everyone should pay attention to what is going on around them, particularly if they live in an area prone to inclement weather. The radar is so good now that in many cases the national weather can track local tornado clouds block by block. I pays everyone to keep tuned and aware. Good post!
We get some pretty bad storms here in the South as well. Our local warning system needs work so my family relies heavily on our S.A.M.E. radio.
We are having the worse drought in 100 years here in Central Texas ... It's bad! Our water sources are drying up fast.
Glad to be back HOME! After living in Arkansas for 36 years and then spending 3 years in Idaho we are very glad to be back where the thunderstorms are. Sounds crazy, but we only had a couple of small rain storms in those three years and we sure missed them.
This winter has been our "best" in a very long time - the ice / snow has not left our city through any of the Chinooks that usually remove all the cold several times through-out the winter. We can go from ultra-freeze to t-shirt weather in 24hr... with it, no more snow. The City of Calgary plans their snow-removal with chinooks in mind - this has been the first winter in ages that their plans have been shot ..
It's true, some of my family lives out around Canyon Lake. When we were out there for Christmas the lake was very very low compared to the past years. There was an island in the middle that was never seen before, at least not in the past 10 years that my cousins have lived out there. And I remember about 5 years ago talk about San Antonio getting their water supply from Canyon Lake.
