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Preparedness and Safety Resources

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In times of hazardous events and disasters, too often people are not prepared resulting in an even larger disaster. There are some steps you can take to be better prepared in case a hazardous event or disaster occurs in your region. Take the time to visit some of the following resources and get you and your family ready for the next major storm. The FEMA "Are You Ready" book is a comprehensive guide on being prepared. You can order your own copy by calling 1-800-480-2520 and selecting option 1.

Preparedness:

• Severe Weather Awareness Week
• FEMA Ready Web Site
• FEMA Are You Ready: A Guide to Citizen Preparedness
• StormReady Program
• Winter Weather Safety

Winter Storms: 

• Winter Weather Safety
• NWS Winter Storms…The Deceptive Killers -pdf
• Red Cross: Are You Ready for a Winter Storm?
• CDC Winter Weather Website

Severe Thunderstorms:

• NWS Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, and Lightning…Nature's Most Violent Storms -pdf
• NWS Basic Spotters Field Guide -pdf
• NWS Advanced Spotters Field Guide -pdf
• Red Cross: Are you Ready for Severe Thunderstorms?
• Red Cross: Are you Ready for Tornadoes?

Lightning:

• NWS Facts about Lightning -pdf
• NWS Coaches and Sports Officials Guide to Lightning -pdf
• NWS Lightning Safety Web Site
• Struck By Lightning: Survivors Website

Extreme Heat:

• Heat Index Chart
• NWS Heat Wave
• Red Cross: Are you Ready for a Heat Wave?
• EPA Heat, Health and Environment

Extreme Cold:

• Winter Weather Safety
• Wind Chill  Index Chart
• CDC Extreme Cold

Flooding and Flash Flooding:

• NWS Turn Around Don't Drown
• Red Cross: Are you Ready for a Flood or Flash Flood?
• Flood Safety Web Site

Drought:

• National Drought Mitigation Center
• Red Cross: Are you Ready for a Drought?

Ultraviolet Radiation:

• EPA Sunwise Program
• Current UV Index

Resources for Children:

• NWS Owlie Skywarn -pdf
• NWS Billy and Maria Coloring Book
• NWS Weather Education Website
• FEMA for Kids
• EPA Environmental Kids Club

Other Resources:

• All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio
• Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH)
• Safely Installing a Standby Generator

NOAA WEATHER RADIO

 “The Voice of the National Weather Service”

NOAA Weather Radio is the fastest and most reliable way to receive severe weather watches, warnings and advisories. Weather Radio is broadcast direct from each National Weather Service office serving Kansas through a network of 25 special frequency transmitters.  Many radio and TV broadcasters rely on weather radio to receive Emergency Alert System (EAS) information for warnings, watches and other critical information.  For the individual, newer type radio receivers with the S.A.M.E. technology can be programmed to only alert for pre-selected counties.  In addition, routine 7 day forecasts, wind chill readings, weather summaries, river stages and much more data are available on weather radio 24/7 direct from the National Weather Service.

 The All Hazards feature of the radio means that critical information such as evacuations, chemical spills, nuclear releases, toxic fumes etc from local county emergency management, law enforcement and others will be relayed on NOAA Weather Radio. In 2004, NOAA Weather Radio began relaying AMBER Alerts, a child abduction recovery program, issued by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

The main NOAA Weather Radio page can be found here.

 The map below shows the latest NOAA Weather Radio coverage in Kansas . More in-depth information including county specific codes for S.A.M.E. receivers can be found at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/CntyCov/nwrKS.htm

• An Introduction to Skywarn
• Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
• Chasing in our area??? Here's our HAM Radio Frequencies!!
• Email our NWS Skywarn Contact.
• American Radio Relay League Home Page

             Training and Safety Information

• Kansas Severe Weather Awareness Information  (PDF Format)
• Spotter Talk Schedule
• Kansas NOAA Weather Radio Coverage
• NWS Tornado Safety Brochure (PDF Format)
• FEMA Storm Shelter Information
• NOAA Weather Radio Information!!
• A Glossary of Severe Weather and Spotter terms.

Severe Weather Safety Guide

These links are courtesy of the National Weather Service Office in Norman, OK.

Severe Weather Safety Guide

Spotters Field Guide

Southwest Kansas
Fire Weather Information

Full Fire Weather Planning Forecast

SPC Day 1 Fire Outlook

SPC Day 2 Fire Outlook

SPC Experimental Day 3-8 Outlook

Printer Friendly Version of Fire Weather Outlooks Map and Discussion

Please note: these products are issued by the NWS Storm Prediction Center and are not updated routinely.

 Today's Weather Trivia

Today's Date is Tuesday May 20, 2025...\n ON... May 20, 1903 In Southwest Kansas, a tornado moved northeast, then east at Ashland and near Lexington. About 55 homes were damaged at Ashland. Barns were destroyed on two farms that were struck. IN 1916...A tornado struck the town of Codell, KS. Another tornado struck the town the next year, and a third tornado hit again the following year. IN 1918...In western Kansas a large tornado moved northeast from 10 miles southeast of Wakeeney. Over 200 head of cattle were killed and many others were injured. Farm machinery was carried considerable distances, and many farm buildings were swept away. Damage was $100,000. IN 1949...Eight or more tornadoes were involved along an 85 mile long track across the counties of Gray, Ford, Hodgeman and Pawnee. Newspapers in the area used headlines such as Tornado army attacks Kansas to describe the record breaking number of tornadoes, at least 40 that hit the central and western part of the state. No people were killed, but hundreds of animals were. Four funnels were seen moving northeast about 6 miles northwest of Dodge City. A tornado moved northeast from 7 miles southwest of Coldwater KS, just missing that town, and ending at Wilmore. The "huge rotating column" sent the entire town of Coldwater running to storm cellars. Most of the $200,000 damage was at Wilmore, as the entire town was torn apart. IN 1951...A tornado moved east-northeast near Scott City KS. A large barn was destroyed south of Scott City. The tornado struck five farms. IN 1957...A tornado touched down to the southwest of Kansas City and traveled a distance of 71 miles cutting a swath of near total destruction through the southeastern suburbs of Ruskin Heights and Hickman Mills. The tornado claimed the lives of 45 persons, and left hundreds homeless. It was the worst weather disaster of record for Kansas City.

OTHER USEFUL LINKS

• Current Conditions
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Storm Prediction Center SPC

Weather Prediction Center WPC

Aviation Weather Center AWC

Climate Prediction Center CPC

National Inegragency Fire Center

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA

Chart #1:  Surface-based Moisture Convergence, Warm Theta Advection, Theta-E

Mouseover links to view previous hours

Chart #2:  Surface-based CAPE, Low Level Lapse Rate (0-2.5km AGL)

• LAPS/GFE Short Fuse Composite "Threat Area" (critical threshold values will be devloped in the future upon testing this spring)
  • Within the maximum of surface moisture convergence
  • Immediately downwind of the warm theta advection axis
  • Within the axis of highest surface based instability (CAPE and Theta-E)
  • Within the region of lowest surface based convective inhibition (0-2.5km AGL lapse rate)
  • Temporal and spatial continuity of at least 3 hours of all of the above
• More information on the original Short Fuse Composite and its utility in nowcasting initiation and location of the most intense convective storms (that can lead to potential tornado development) can be found in this paper:
  • Jim Johnson, 1993: The "Short Fuse" Composite: An Operational Analysis Technique for Tornado Forecasting.  In The Tornado: Its Structure, Dynamics, Prediction, and Hazards (C. Church, D. Burgess, C. Doswell, and R. Davies_Jones, eds.). Geophysical Monograph 79, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C. pp. 605-610.   Click HERE! to read document in .pdf format.
  • Discussion of the old and new technique is offered HERE.

• Some information on the generation of these graphics:
  • The charts are currently updating at :35 past the hour.  (Future plans are to hopefully run LAPS earlier to get the valid time graphics updated perhaps as early as :20 past the hour.
  • The surface moisture flux convergence graphic is computed locally using MSAS hourly analysis wind fields (instead of LAPS).  MSAS uses a better quality control algorithm to filter out poor wind observations, versus the LAPS analysis scheme.  Testing has concluded that the moisture convergence field offered a better signal using MSAS winds in most convective events.
  • Warm Theta Advection, Theta-E, and CAPE graphics are all the internally calculated grids from within LAPS itself.  (Future plans are to also calculate Theta Advection using MSAS winds, but the "potential temperature advection" grid from LAPS itself tends to have less noise than moisture convergence).
     
• Latest Changes & Recent Events:
  • (6/20/2005)  We have changed Chart 2 to remove surface-based CIN and use, instead, 0-2.5km AGL low level lapse rate.  A discussion on this change can be found HERE
  • (10/5/2005)   Version 1.0 of AWIPS Short Fuse Composite is now available on the NWS AWIPS Local Applications Database.
  • (10/5/2005)  A two-part Powerpoint presentation "Using the Short Fuse Composite to Forecast Severe Convection" is now available which was presented at the 2005 9th Annual High Plains Conference.
    Part I - "History of the SFC in the AFOS Era"
    Part II - "The Next Generation SFC" which includes Case Study examples from April 10, June 9, July 3, and August 19 2005.

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