Missouri – March 4th through March 8th, 2024, is severe weather awareness week. On Wednesday, March 6th, the National Weather Service is teaching about the danger of tornadoes.
On March 6th Missouri is issuing a statewide severe weather tornado drill at 11 a.m. Residents are encouraged to treat the drill as if it were an actual Tornado Warning. The drill is to test people’s readiness and knowledge of how to act during an actual tornado threat, or other life-threatening events, such as flash floods and damaging winds. Local officials were told to initiate the warning sirens to begin the drill. For more information on the drill visit, https://www.weather.gov/safety/tornado
Tornadoes are violent rotating columns of air moving over 200 miles per hour, that can cause damage to anything, like destroying buildings, flipping cars, and creating deadly flying debris. To briefly summarize what to do if a tornado occurs: find shelter immediately. Go to a safe room, basement, storm cellar, or a small interior room on the lowest level of a sturdy building. Stay away from all windows, doors, and outside walls. Don’t go under any overpasses or bridges and stay in low flat locations. Always use your arms to protect your lower head and neck from flying debris. To know if a tornado is coming you can listen to your local weather or sign up for severe weather text alerts. Ozark Radio News offers both. You can also watch the sky for signs of unusual colors and swirling clouds, or listen for the sound of a freight train, which has been used to describe the sound of an approaching tornado.
For more information or severe weather preparedness week visit, https://www.weather.gov/eax/SevereWeatherPreparednessWeek#:~:text=Join%20the%20NWS%20and%20Missouri,to%20promote%20severe%20weather%20preparedness, or contact the National Weather Service at 417-869-4491.
