Severe Weather Awareness Week: Tornado Safety

A statewide tornado drill will be held on March 22 this year as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.

This drill gives schools, businesses, and families the chance to practice and review their severe weather safety plans and drills.

The Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness has been working to keep Ohioans informed about severe weather hazards for more than 35 years by sponsoring statewide campaigns like this week.

>>3 ways to prepared for severe weather; Statewide tornado drill this week

With more than 1,000 confirmed tornadoes reported in the state of Ohio since the 1940s, it is important to know where you and your family would go if a tornado warning was issued.

Think of the word DUCK:

D: Get down to the lowest level

U: Get under something sturdy and safe

C: Cover your head

K: Keep there until the storm passes

This tornado drill also gives amateur radio operators and trained storm spotters the chance to prepare for the severe weather season by testing their radios during the event.

“It’s an opportunity for the equipment that may not have been used too much over the winter season to get the dust blown out as we say,” said Don Parker

Dayton Skywarn is part of the National Weather Service’s SKYWARN network of trained amateur radio operators, weather spotters, emergency management, and citizen volunteers. They relay real-time weather observations to the National Weather Service during severe weather events.

For more information on how to become a trained storm spotter, click here. http://www.weather.gov/iln/spottertrainingschedule.

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