Severe Weather Awareness Week: March 6 -12

This week is severe weather awareness week on WeatherNation, where we bring you a new topic each day surrounding severe weather and storms to keep you prepared and protected headed into the Spring.

Sunday - Bonus!

Surviving a storm can be terrifying and subsequent storms can cause fear and panic. Our meteorologist Jackie Brown spoke with a Clinical Social Worker about how you can cope with the disaster afterwards.

Saturday - Prep & Safety

Preparation ahead of the storm is essential for quick, safe response if a severe warning is issued for your area. Our Dr. Jim sat down with MinuteMan Disaster Response to talk about safe places to go in your home and what you need to have before a storm strikes.

Friday - Forecasting

La Nina is officially over and an "ENSO-neutral" pattern is expected for the Spring. The relationship between El Nino phases and hurricane season is well understood, but what about severe weather? Severe weather week continues looking at forecasting using global weather patterns.

Thursday - Flooding

Flooding can be just as dangerous as severe storms and historically is more deadly. We often use the "excessive rainfall outlooks" which break the flooding threat into categories & risks based on the geography, soils and capability of a geographical region. For example a level 3 threat in California may be equivalent to a level 1 threat in Alabama due to the soil composition and terrain.

Wednesday - Thunderstorms

Not every storm reaches severe criteria, but thunderstorms can bring many hazards including flash flooding, lightning and strong winds. We spoke with a radar expert at Oklahoma State University about radar technology and how it can help us determine storm strength, size, severity and threats.

Tuesday - Wind & Hail

Did you know that hail has to be 1" in diameter or greater and winds in excess of 58 mph for a storm to be considered "severe"? We can see winds stronger than that as well and hail up to 4" in diameter but these are the thresholds for what makes a storm severe (besides a tornado).

Monday - Tornadoes

Monday's theme is tornadoes which are extremely dangerous and range from EF-0 to EF-5 with winds in excess of 250 mph! Even though mobile homes account for only 6% of the houses in the U.S., they account for over half of tornado deaths. More on how you can stay safe:

Check back in with us each day for the latest on the threat of the Day