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Preparedness and Safety Resources

Several .pdf files -

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:

Winter Storms: 

•  -pdf

Severe Thunderstorms:

•  -pdf
• -pdf
•  -pdf

Lightning:

•  -pdf
• -pdf

Extreme Heat:

• Heat Index Chart

Extreme Cold:

Flooding and Flash Flooding:

Drought:

Ultraviolet Radiation:

Resources for Children:

• 博体育 Owlie Skywarn -pdf
• 博体育 Weather Education Website

Other Resources:

• All Hazards NOAA Weather Radio

NOAA WEATHER RADIO

 “The Voice of the 博体育”

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 博体育 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 博体育.

 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 .

 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:

• An Introduction to Skywarn
• Chasing in our area??? Here's our HAM Radio Frequencies!!
• Email our 博体育 Skywarn Contact.

             Training and Safety Information

• Kansas Severe Weather Awareness Information  (PDF Format)
• (PDF Format)
• A Glossary of Severe Weather and Spotter terms.

Severe Weather Safety Guide

These links are courtesy of the 博体育 Office in Norman, OK.

Southwest Kansas
Fire Weather Information

 Today's Weather Trivia

Today's Date is Saturday May 3, 2025...\n ON... May 3, 1912 A tornado moved northwest through Offerle KS. This tornado destroyed barns and small homes in the north part of town. National newspapers picked up a false rumor that several Mexican laborers had been killed in railroad cars. IN 1954...The low of 28 degrees tied the record low for the month of May at Liberal. IN 1987...Thunderstorms produced severe weather in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Softball size hail was reported at Center Point, TX, and a tornado caused three million dollars damage near Satanta KS. IN 1989...Large hail did considerable damage to crops in Ford and Hodgeman counties with about 10,000 acres of wheat nearly destroyed. IN 1999...From the afternoon of May 3rd through the evening of May 4th, there was an outbreak of tornadoes from southwest Texas through southeast South Dakota. The most devastating part of this outbreak occurred during the late afternoon and evening of May 3rd over Oklahoma and southern Kansas. Over 70 tornadoes were spawned across this area, with the strongest one doing damage to both rural sections of central Oklahoma as well as densely populated areas of Oklahoma City and its suburbs. This tornado was rated an F5, the highest on the Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale. An F4 tornado plowed through Haysville in suburban Wichita Kansas. A total of 42 people died in Oklahoma and 6 in south Central Kansas.

OTHER USEFUL LINKS

• Current Conditions
• SW Kansas Airports

• Radar Imagery

• Forecasts
• Graphical
• Graphical-Central Plains
• Water and Climate
• Latest Text Products

• Climate
• Drought Info

• Weather Safety
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• Tiempo de Seguridad
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• Informar del tiempo severo
• Medidas de seguridad en clima severo
• Guía Práctica del Observador del Tiempo

• Outreach/Education
  • Kid's Weather Page

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

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 博体育
  • (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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