NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA (352today.com) – Don’t be alarmed when if you hear a tornado warning around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 7.
IT’S JUST A TEST.
But an important one.
As part of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Florida, the National Weather Service (NWS) will issue a practice Tornado Warning.
The warning will be broadcast on NOAA Alert Radio as a “routine weekly test” message.
The NWS does this so schools and daycare centers can teach children what to do to protect themselves during a tornado warning.
If you’ve lived in Florida for any length of time, you know that thunderstorms occur frequently across the Sunshine State.
THUNDERSTORMS
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) says Florida has the greatest number of thunderstorms in the United States. FDEM says the state averages over 70 thunderstorm days per year with much of the Gulf Coast experiencing over 80 and even 100 days a year.
Thunderstorms come in different forms. Emergency managers say sometimes a storm has only one thunderstorm cloud and sometimes thunderstorms have a family of clouds, or cells, associated with them. Similarly, they say thunderstorms may go on for a very long time or be as brief as a few minutes.
Meteorologists say one of the reasons Florida has so many thunderstorms is that many of the ingredients needed to create thunderstorms can be found here almost every day.
Three things are needed in the atmosphere for thunderstorms to develop and grow: the atmosphere needs to be moist, unstable, and have a source of lift.
Since Florida is surrounded by water, not to mention the many inland lakes, rivers and swamps, there are plenty of sources of water vapor to feed thunderstorms. When the weather conditions are right for thunderstorms to form, meteorologists call the atmosphere “unstable.”
Florida receives plenty of sunlight, which warms the air near the ground and causes the air to become unstable.
All thunderstorms have an updraft, where air rises rapidly to 7 to 10 miles above the ground. This causes the moisture to turn into liquid water or ice, forming raindrops and the tall, towering clouds that we can easily distinguish as “thunderstorm clouds.”
In order for an unstable atmosphere to produce the updrafts needed for strong thunderstorms, a little boost is needed to get the updraft started. Meteorologists call these boosts “lift”.
Sources of lift can be an approaching frontal system or a sea breeze boundary forming during a typical summer afternoon, and Florida has plenty of both during the year.
The NWS offices staff meteorologists 24/7, 365 days of the year to issue warnings when storms become severe to give you time to move to a place of safety.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning will be issued by the NWS when a thunderstorm detected by radar is producing or capable of producing straight-line winds in excess of 58 mph (enough to down trees or large limbs, move unsecured outdoor objects, rip screens) and/or hail larger than 1” in diameter (size of a U.S. Quarter).
TORNADOES
Severe thunderstorms can also produce tornadoes with little or no advance warning.
When a tornado warning threatens your location, go to an interior room on the lowest floor of your building and stay away from windows. If time permits, move vehicles into garages to prevent hail or wind damage.
FDEM says Florida ranks 5th nationally in the annual average number of tornadoes and ties for 6th in tornado fatalities with an annual average of 4 fatalities per year.
Meteorologists say tornadoes usually last less than 15 minutes, but they can cause significant damage as they travel along the ground. Due to the relatively small and short-lived nature of most tornadoes, it makes it difficult for the NWS to give advance warning.
The average lead time (the time between when a warning is issued and the eventual tornado touchdown) is 10-20 minutes. In some cases, it may only be a few minutes. But, even a few minutes of warning can make the difference between life and death.
This is why having multiple ways to receive weather alerts including apps that will automatically alert you whenever the NWS issues a
warning.