Severe Weather Where?

I’ve been visiting friends in Kansas City this past week, and the weather here has been a severe change from what we experience in Georgia.  First, we seem to have brought rain to the area after they’ve been in a seven-month drought.  Then the rain turned to snow, a two-inch total and almost the first snowfall of the winter for them.

In the middle of the week we got a call from our daughter back in Augusta.  It seems they have also had some storms there in our absence, and Cathy lost power for a few hours. Even more worrisome, some trees in the small glade behind her house were blown over. Fortunately, they didn’t fall toward her fence or house.

That same storm included a tornado that hit the town of Adair, Georgia and killed one of its residents.

Why did I bring all that weather-related information up?  Well, it got me thinking about a topic I’ve had rolling around in my brain for a couple of years that concerns severe weather alerts that we hear on radio and see on TV.

Whenever there is a severe weather alert broadcast, the meteorologist always refers to the counties involved in the alert. If you’re watching television, there is usually a scroll bar with all the counties involved accompanied by a small weather map with the affected area highlighted. 

Question:  Do you know what counties surround you?

When I’m driving and I hear a severe weather broadcast, I have no idea where that storm is unless it is in one of the counties that comprise the Augusta metropolitan area.  Those are Richmond and Columbia Counties.  I also know that McDuffie County is just to the west of us—good information to know, since most storms track west to east. 

If there is any other county affected, forget it.  I haven’t a clue whether the weather alert applies to me or not.  Now, that ignorance could be critical and life threatening.

The friend we are visiting has a 4X6-inch, laminated map of the counties in Kansas. It is there to assist when the weather service issues a warning. It came from the local police department, I guess I don’t have to tell you that Kansas is always in danger of getting severe weather during tornado season.  Most of the Midwest is, and lately, the rest of the country has also gotten a lot of severe weather.

If you cannot get a laminated map from your local police or sheriff department, there is a way to produce your own county map.  Go online and type into your search engine the words, “(state) Counties Map” without the quotes.  Substitute your state at the beginning. Once you have the map on screen, copy and reduce it to whatever size you want and then print it. 

Since this is a life saving tip, I recommend that you pass it along to all your family and friends.

There is one other aspect to this severe weather topic.  I used to live in Omaha, another city located in what is known as “Tornado Alley.”  I took the advice of our local weather team and bought one of those weather alert radios that broadcast alerts from the National Weather Service when a storm is in the area.  It turned out to be a huge inconvenience, because it would wake us up in the middle of the night to alert us to severe weather in a 100-mile radius—usually at the outer limit and nowhere near us.  Needless to report, that little radio was relegated to the trash.