One of the things we constantly mention in Emergency Management is to make it a habit to monitor the weather forecasts so that you can be prepared. If you stop to think about this you probably do this more often than you think. How many times have you changed a Doctor’s appointment because the weather forecast predicted rain or snow and you didn’t want to drive in the snow or rain, or you changed a fishing trip or other outside sport because of weather forecast, or you simply closed your windows before you went to bed because it was going to rain during the night. All these are taking to account the weather forecast and preparing to prevent damages or losses. In the spirit of self preparedness we at Emergency Management ask that you monitor the weather on the same basis as you check your email or check your Facebook or other social media accounts. Just a few minutes a day checking the weather at one of the many weather apps for your phone or following the links on the left hand side this page (https://ready.northwildwood.com) on your computer will keep you up to date. For those that want to learn more about weather – consider becoming a Skywarn weather Spotter. Cape May County has an active group please visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CapeMayCountySkywarn/ The training you receive as part of the Spotter Training is invaluable in understanding weather. Another way to learn about weather is to purchase one of the many books on meteorology or weather on Amazon or your favorite book vendor. After you learned more about weather then the next course is to find websites that provide you live and prediction data to review. The first one you should check is the NWS Daily Briefing (3rd link left hand side). The Daily Briefing is a website that has a link to everything you need to know about weather. If you find this page too much to start with then go to the basic National Weather Service local forecast (4th link left hand side) and read all the data especially the forecast discussions. The forecast discussions are often loaded with meteorological terms that you might have to look up but after a while you will have a better understanding of the weather forecast uncertainties. Once you have a better understanding of weather there are several websites that provide the forecast models and other information in one location. One such website is the Tropical Tidbits forecast model page https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/ another one that we came across that has a good visual page is Ventusky https://www.ventusky.com/ on this website as well as many that we suggest you may have to click buttons to change what is displayed or change time frames to see future predictions. Both are worthwhile to add to your list of weather sites. After last weeks California earthquakes how many followed the Earthquake link (9th link on left hand side) to learn more about the earthquake. The link takes you to https://earthquake.usgs.gov/. Lastly since summer is the season of wild fires this website is handy to better understand where the fires are and the extent of the fire damage the website is https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/. Never before in our history is so much information available at our fingertips to learn and be prepared. Search, Visit and Bookmark websites that you find so that you can go back frequently. When you take a moment to better understand our weather and surrounding you will be in a position to be Prepared for whatever the weather will bring us.
