Severe weather awareness week – severe thunderstorms

COLUMBUS, Mississippi (WCBI) – Today marks the beginning of severe weather awareness week in the state of Mississippi. A different “topic” will be covered each day, so it’s important to follow along and make sure your severe weather plan is up to date and ready to implement.

Monday’s focus is severe storms. Remember, severe storms can threaten life and property just as tornadoes can. In order for a storm to be severe, it must contain hail at least one inch in diameter and/or damaging winds of 58 mph or higher. Lightning and heavy rain do not make a storm severe.

In the year 2021, 1,871 severe thunderstorm warnings were issued across the state of Mississippi.

Recently, severe thunderstorm warnings went to a “tiered” system just the same as tornado warnings. You may see words like “considerable” or “destructive” in a warning text – this indicates a more life-threatening situation from either very large hail (2″+) or destructive winds (70+ mph). In fact, a wireless emergency alert (WEA) will be triggered if you are in a “destructive” severe t-storm warning.

Tuesday’s topic is flash flooding.