Air March 13, 2002

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. There’s still time to attend the sprayer and planter calibration workshop scheduled for Friday at noon in Riley county northwest of Leonardville. Call the Extension Office to register and get specific directions.

This is severe weather awareness week. I was doing some quizzing around at the office, of the four Kansas natives I work with, and found entirely too little severe weather knowledge. So let’s see how you do on a couple of questions this morning. What’s the most active month for severe thunderstorms in Kansas? While April, May and June are all busy months, May leads the pack with June close behind and April a little further back. What’s the biggest threat from thunderstorms? Everyone seems to fear the tornadoes, I guess thanks to the Wizard of Oz, but tornadoes are a relatively uncommon occurrence from thunderstorms. We only average 50 Kansas tornadoes a year. The number one threat is lightning. Lightning is in every thunderstorm. Duh, that’s what makes the thunder. And we get to the point that we don’t think twice about it. That’s a bad attitude that can kill you. The number two threat is again NOT tornadoes, but drowning from flash floods associated with thunderstorms. Six inches of moving flash flood water can knock you off your feet, and even as little as 1 foot of flash flood water can float and move many vehicles, two feet will get most vehicles going downstream. In reality, the biggest threat in severe weather is ignorance. Too many people do the wrong thing. Under an overpass is not a safe place to be during a tornado. A few people and a camera crew simply got very lucky. Numerous people have now been killed doing the same thing! Awareness of the weather around you and the risk of severe weather is the most important step towards being safe. Learn what kind weather brings severe storms. Listen to a local radio station or better yet, supplement that with a weather radio. With the new weather radio transmitter at Abilene, we get pretty good reception throughout the county. This way you can have 24/7 access to the most current weather information. Severe weather is a fact here in tornado alley. Don’t fall prey to all the myths about severe weather, get the facts, get informed and stay alert!

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2002.

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