(03/07/17) With the chance of minor snowfall for this upcoming weekend it is a perfect example of the type of weather we get in the Spring. One day hot, One day cold, sometimes rain and some times snow. These ups and downs of the temperatures often bring severe weather – thunder storms, damaging winds, and a possible tornado. If you are a viewer of the Weather Channel or the Weather Nation channel you are familiar with the different locations that are getting severe weather at times when they usually don’t. We are not immune from these weather anomalies that are ever so frequently taking place and we must keep up on our local weather. In getting weather alerts there is only one source and that is the National Weather Service. Virtually all other weather predictions are based on NOAA National Weather Service forecasts and data. This is not to discount local weather forecasts given by local weather people. The local people can put a local spin on the NWS forecast so that it will help local residents to better understand the forecast. To get severe weather alerts the best way is to get them directly from the National Weather Service. Weather alerts are issues across several differ platforms. The one that we recommend is get a weather radio that has S.A.M.E. (specific area message encoding) that will set off a warning alert sound if there is an alert in our area. If you have a smart phone there is a FEMA App that is capable of receiving NWS SAME messages for our area, as well as, a National Weather Service App that in addition to the SAME messages it will give you official weather forecasts and radar images. Whatever works for you is the one you should have. In the event of a tornado warning (as opposed to a tornado watch we get frequently) North Wildwood emergency warning system has a procedure to alert the public first by sounding the emergency warning sirens in the classic tornado pattern of a straight siren for 5 minutes and also sending a prerecorded message to the residents via the Code Red system. In the event of tornado people should shelter in place at a safe portion of their house. Being on a peninsula with a small land mass often these alerts are short notice unlike the tornado alerts in the Midwest that track tornadoes for many miles. To clarify it further a Watch is when conditions may be favorable to produce the tornado while the Warning is when a tornado is spotted on the ground or indicated by weather radar.
