A storm system will continue to produce widespread showers and thunderstorms as it progresses eastward across the central U.S. into the Northeast through the weekend. There are risks of severe thunderstorms and excessive rainfall on Saturday from the Ozarks into the mid-Mississippi River Valley with potential for damaging winds, large hail, tornadoes, and flash flooding. Read More >
Biggest takeaway:
This is a rare event, but one that needs to be planned for given its catastrophic potential. Any plan will likely revolve around near instant notification of all people with a canned, prepared statement of what can be done to take cover very quickly. This plan should be able to link to your Tornado Warning plan (the "threat" listed just above this one) to enhance actions (hopefully) already taken from the NWS tornado warning that likely was already issued.
Warning/Trigger for Plan:
Either:
A) NWS Tornado Warning mentioning “CONFIRMED” tornado.
B) Sighted tornado from your location
Advance Notice/Time to Activate & Accomplish Your Planned Response:
Plan on 0-2 minutes of advance warning
Allow options that there may be as much as 10 mins if a NWS Tornado Warning contains confirmation of a tornado [uncommon].
Frequency:
Rare, but a high end threat that needs to have a plan to allow proper response.
How Accurate Warnings?
If a tornado is confirmed in a warning, or you see one - the threat is there. It will just be a matter of if it will hit your exact location. Race to do what you can.