Severe Weather Preparedness

 National Lightning Safety Awareness Week
June 21-27, 2009

Lightning kills or injures hundreds each year. There have been 9 death in just the first half of June alone. See our new 30-second video on a teen struck by lightning, download our new safety brochure and explore the wealth of resources on the NWS lightning safety website.

Topic	Factsheet	Text of Video	Video
Lightning Overview	Lightning & Lightning Safety- An Introduction	Text Equivalent
The Science of Lightning	Why do some clouds produce lightning and others don't?	Text Equivalent
Lightning Safety Outdoors	Lightning Safety Outdoors	Text Equivalent
Lightning Safety Indoors	Safe Shelters & Indoor Safety	Text Equivalent
Medical Aspects	The Medical Aspects of Lightning	Text Equivalent

To play videos, click on Real Player icon and get free download.

Latest Severe Weather Information

Day 2 Convective Outlook

Day 3 Convective Outlook

Mesoscale Discussion

Severe Weather Awareness Week: May 3 - 9

During this week, National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast Office New York, NY (OKX) will issue and broadcast daily Public Information Statements according to the schedule in the table presented below.

ONLY ONE COMMUNICATIONS DRILL THIS YEAR (Thursday, May 7)

Announcement:  This year there will be only one emergency communication drill, which will be conducted throughout New York State, simultaneously, on Thursday, May 7, at approximately 1:15 p.m. The five NWS offices serving NY State will originate the generic emergency message to test communication networks that are in place.  This TEST message will be issued as a Special Weather Statement for mass dissemination and as a Required Monthly Test (RMT) for the Emergency Alert System (EAS) through NOAA’s All Hazards Weather Radio.

Response to Test Issuance:  At a minimum, you should receive this test message over NOAA’s All Hazards Weather Radio and on our NWS web page at http://www.weather.gov/nyc.  School administrators, emergency managers, and broadcast media should respond to this TEST message by accessing the following web page using the secure password that you were given.  This page is hosted by the NY State Emergency Management Office:

http://dev.nysemo.state.ny.us/nws/index.htm

To become familiar with the drill response forms, we recommend that you print a blank copy of the drill form prior to this test.

If you need assistance in accessing NOAA Weather Radio, SAME(Specific Area Message Encoder) county codes for this drill, visit http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm

For additional information, contact:
Patrick Maloit - Severe Weather Program Leader
email: patrick.maloit@noaa.gov