Tornado Warnings
A Matter of Life and Death

Most everyone has a passing interest or curiosity in the weather. How hot will it be? Will it be windy? Will it rain on my wedding day? But honestly, most of us go ahead with whatever we planned regardless of the weather. We may be inconvenienced, but we generally do whatever we want to do. Even when a Severe Thunderstorm Watch, Flash Flood Watch or Tornado Watch is issued, you don’t usually put your life on hold.

But when there’s a warning, you need to stop at least for a moment to find out two critical pieces of information; what the warning is for and where it is, relative to your current location or where you’re going. A third piece of critical information is what to do. That information is at the end of this page, so don’t miss it!

A Tornado Warning is usually the most urgent, although flooding and lightning are more deadly than tornado destruction.

A Tornado Warning is generally issued under three circumstances:

1. A tornadic circulation has been detected by radar. Many severe thunderstorms contain warm, rotating updrafts known as “mesocyclones,” which show up on radar, but only a small percentage of mesocyclones actually develop into tornadoes. A trained radar meteorologist can judge the intensity, depth and persistence of rotation when deciding to issue a warning.

2. A funnel-cloud or actual tornado has been sighted by a trained Skywarn storm-spotter. The National Weather Service and other public safety agencies work together to train and certify storm spotters. Many spotters are also amateur radio operators and report their information to the weather service without tying up phone lines in an emergency. Well-trained Skywarn spotters are experts in every phase of visual storm detection. They also report on wind speeds, temperatures and humidity changes that give forecasters critical real-time clues to the development, intensity and decay of severe thunderstorms.

To find out how you can become a storm spotter, go to this link:

3. Radar is indispensible, storm-spotters invaluable, but a meteorologist can issue a tornado warning whenever they believe it’s the right thing to do to protect life and property. False alarms are embarrassing, and can lead to complacency, but failing to warn of a potentially deadly storm is unacceptable.

Tornado warnings usually last 45 minutes or less. It depends on how large the parent thunderstorm is and how fast it’s moving. Tornadoes can form in several areas of a severe thunderstorm and are often obscured by rain. And tornadoes are not the only dangerous part of a severe thunderstorm. The point is, don’t get cute trying to pick your way around the “worst part” of the storm. Stay away from all of it if you can.

Tornadoes can form in the rear flank of a severe storm or on the leading edge of a squall line. A third scenario is probably more dangerous than the previous two combined. In a classic severe weather outbreak, a tornado may form on the trailing flank of a supercell. The parent storm circulation wraps rain-cooled air around the vortex killing it. But as the storm progresses into a more conducive environment, it can form another circulation that grows into a tornado that jumps ahead of the warning area. Successive tornado formation is believed responsible for some of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in the last century.

At WeatherOnCall, our job is to make sure you know as much about the storm as quickly as possible. Your job is simply to listen carefully and react properly.

What to do: If you’re in your car when you hear a Tornado warning, the first thing to do is look around, assuming you can do so safely. Your default plan should always be to get off the street, find a safe building and wait for the storm to pass. Most people aren’t that cautious, but if you follow that advice while there’s still time, you can be virtually assured of coming through the storm without a scratch.

If you have kids with you in the car, waiting out the storm in a safe place is the only responsible course of action. Get off the streets, out of your car, into a strong, permanent shelter and wait for the storm to pass.

If you’re by yourself, your first question should be, “Am I in danger right now?” You need to know where the storm is, relative to your position.

Here is a dirty little secret about living in a major metropolitan area. A lot of people don’t know their directions or where they are in relation to local landmarks. They know how to get somewhere, but they’re not sure where they are once they get there. A further complication is that most of us don’t locate ourselves by counties, but rather by cities and freeways that would be impossible to warn for.

Study the map. Know your counties!

Know where you are in relation to the storm!

Storm days are never perfect. There may be several bouts of showers and storms that obscure the most dangerous weather by clouds and rain. Just because there’s a warning for Parker County, west of Fort Worth, doesn’t mean Mesquite isn’t about to have its own severe weather.

Generally, if the storm is east or northeast of you, you’re probably okay. Otherwise, you’ll need to answer a few more questions. How far away is it? How fast is it moving? Am I heading toward the storm? Should I get off the freeway? Where can I drive to get under shelter? One other important question is, “What else is about to develop and where?”

Where to go: Let’s begin with where not to go. Do not park under an overpass or bridge. Flash flooding that often accompanies supercell storms has been known to swamp underpasses drowning people in their cars. Overpasses also concentrate and magnify wind gusts and actually funnel wind-blown storm debris that could easily rip into and crush car bodies. People tend to park under overpasses to keep hail from damaging their car, but hail is not nearly as dangerous as flooding and storm debris.

Your best choice is an underground parking garage for obvious reasons. Your second choice is an above-ground parking garage. It’s a steel-reinforced concrete shelter that is not as likely to collapse as other buildings. Drive-through banking lanes are usually pretty solid. Some people have recommended parking under the overhang of a gas station. It may protect you from hail, but in high winds and storm debris, it’s like parking yourself under a razor blade next to flame thrower. You can have my spot.

If you can’t find proper shelter for your car, don’t wait until it’s too late for you to get inside a sturdy building. And stay away from those plate-glass store windows!

If you’re out in the open or in the country, you may be able to drive away from a tornado if you know the roads and your directions and if you can see where the tornado is. Failing that, you should leave your car on the shoulder, and lie flat in a ditch or ravine- some place that is lower than ground level to avoid wind-blown storm debris. After the winds have died down, get out of the ditch to avoid flooding. Stay away from trees. They attract lightning and they can crush you with a broken limb.

In an office building or school, move to an interior hallway away from windows on the lowest level and sit on the floor, if possible.

In your home, move to an interior closet or bathroom away from windows as much as possible. Don’t worry about the window over the tub if you have a shower curtain. But if your bathroom has a large glass tub or shower enclosure, a closet is a better choice. A pantry or closet underneath a staircase is a good choice with all the framing and structure around it. Use towels, blankets and pillows in your home shelter to protect yourself from storm debris and flying glass. Take a flashlight, cell phone and battery-powered radio with you.

Finally, if you've been thinking about signing up for WeatherOnCall.com, do it now rather than try to subscribe in the middle of a storm. We’re asking an initial $24 a year for membership and offering members-only discount coupons that will more than pay for your membership.