StormReady
is a National Weather Service program created to help communities
prepare for severe weather.
StormReady aims to improve communication and weather preparedness,
and it gives clear guidance toward improving warning programs.
To obtain
StormReady recognition, communities must meet very clear guidelines
in several areas including: communication, weather information reception,
hydro-meteorological monitoring, local warning dissemination, community
preparedness and administrative excellence. After submitting an application,
a team consisting of representatives from the National Weather Service
and Emergency Management meet to verify that communities meet the
criteria for recognition.
So what does being
StormReady mean to the citizens of these ready communities. Well,
in the Mid-South we have an average of 80 casualties due to tornadoes
each year. Mississippi is second in the nation in this category. Tennessee
is sixth, and Arkansas is ninth. If fact, for every tornado
that touches down in the Mid-South, four people are either killed
or injured. These statistics are only for tornadoes, more casualties
occur due to excessive heat, winter storms, lightning, and floods
each year. The Mid-South is one of the riskiest areas for weather
disasters in the country.
For this reason, weather preparedness is all the more
important. Officials and citizens must be prepared. Warning systems
and severe weather spotters must be in place when storms hit if lives
and property are to be saved. It takes a coordinated effort between
emergency management, community volunteers, the media, and the National
Weather Service, to make sure the word that severe weather is approaching
gets out and that people are prepared.
Currently over 330 communities and counties across the
United States are recognized by the National Weather Service
as StormReady.
www.weather.gov 
