NWS makes changes to severe thunderstorm warning system - KAUZ

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - New changes were made Monday to severe thunderstorm warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

“The changes we are getting ready to make are the most significant that we’ve made,” said Rick Smith, warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS Norman office.

Whenever severe thunderstorm warnings are issued new information will appear at the bottom with what the NWS is calling ‘tags.’ These tags will designate the most intense storms that are capable of producing large hail and damaging winds.

Base level severe warnings, which are storms with winds over 58 mph and small hail, will see no changes.

Storms that can produce golf-ball-sized hail or winds over 70 mph will be tagged ‘considerable.’

Storms that can produce baseball-sized hail or winds over 80 mph will be tagged ‘destructive.’

For storms labeled as destructive, an alert will be sent to your phone if you’re in the area under the warning, similar to an Amber alert.

“We’ve never had that before with severe thunderstorm warnings and I think this is going to help people be aware of those truly dangerous storms. We may only get one a year but when you get one a year, when you get that storm affecting you, it’s a big deal,” Smith said.

Broken windows, roof damage, and even snapped tree limbs can happen in these storms, but crops like wheat and cotton can also be devastated.

“Regardless of the stage of the crop, most of the time it is going to wipe it out,” David Graf, Texas Agrilife Extension Agent for Wichita County, said. “That crop is your income for the next year, that’s how you pay for all the bills and that so yeah it makes a significant economic impact.”

This threat is something hopefully you’ll know more about thanks to these changes.

“We hope that this is going to really help people focus on those truly dangerous storms where if you have one of these storms affect you, you can get extreme damage either from the hail or the wind or both,” Smith said.

Later this month changes are also coming for what products issued for floods and flash floods by the NWS. This includes making advisories and warnings much easier to understand so people know exactly what kind of threat they are facing.

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