Governor Mike Pence has proclaimed March 15 through 21, 2015 as Severe Weather Preparedness Week in Indiana.
Throughout the week, I’ll use my “W9LW’s Ramblings” blog to help build awareness of important severe weather concepts that everyone should know.
If you’re a trained storm spotter, you’ll already know most of the stuff I’ll write about. In that case, I encourage you to use Indiana Severe Weather Preparedness Week to share this information with your family, friends and co-workers. After all, you are probably the closest thing to a weather expert who those folks know personally.
Today, I’ll start with one of the most basic of severe weather concepts, but also one of the most important; knowing the difference between a severe weather watch and a warning.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has used the term, “watch,” since August of 1965 but I still talk to people who don’t really understand what a watch is and others who refer to watches as warnings and warnings as watches.
Here’s a simple table to help you remember the difference. The information below applies to both tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings and watches.
| Warning | Watch | |
| Your response | Take shelter now! | Remain alert, determine where you’ll take shelter if necessary |
| Meaning | Severe weather is imminent, has been detected by radar and/or confirmed by trained weather spotters | Conditions are favorable for the development of severe weather in and close to the watch area |
| Timeframe | Minutes before danger arrives | Usually hours before severe weather occurs |
| Geography | Very local, sometimes less than a county, based on storm location and track | Regional, multiple counties, often crossing state lines, based on atmospheric conditions |
Bottom line: When the NWS issues a warning, it’s time to take action. Now. When the NWS issues a watch, it’s time to make sure you’ll know about a warning if one comes out later and time to make sure you know what you’ll do if a warning comes out.
Please share this! Do you know someone who doesn’t really understand watches and warnings? Use the buttons below to share a link with your social networks, etc.