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The National Weather Service (NWS) and its partner, the New Mexico Office of Emergency Management, have designated
the first week of April 2006 as New Mexico Severe Weather Safety Awareness Week. This marks the annual campaign to promote severe thunderstorm and tornado awareness and safety.
The keys to avoiding serious injury or death during a severe thunderstorm or tornado include knowing the safety rules to survive hazardous weather, knowing how to stay informed of forecasts and warnings for severe weather storm conditions, preparing ahead of time by developing both personal and community severe weather action plans and conducting drills to practice severe weather survival skills, and ensuring that your local community has an adequate severe weather warning and reporting system.
Severe Weather Safety Awareness Week is a good time, after months without thunderstorms, to review hazardous weather preparedness plans and to conduct severe weather drills throughout your community, at school, at work, in the hospital or health care facility, and in the home.
Emergency managers can prepare their communities for severe weather by conducting safety drills and testing of local warning systems, and by ensuring local have been organized and received recent severe weather training. Annual Severe Weather Spotter Training has begun across the state and will continue throughout April and May. It's important that your community has trained severe weather spotters. Visit our SKYWARN Page for additional information and the latest training schedule.
The National Weather Service StormReady program offers guidance on preparing communities for hazardous weather. A city or county that has met a minimum standard of severe weather preparedness will be given special recognition as
StormReady.
The National Weather Service will issue public information statements during the week covering effective severe weather preparedness and safety.
News media and New Mexico emergency managers or anyone needing assistance in severe thunderstorm and tornado safety preparedness and planning are invited to contact one of the following offices for details:
Northern and Eastern New Mexico. (NWS Albuquerque NM area office)
Keith Hayes - Warning Coordination Meteorologist
(505) 243-0702
South Central New Mexico. (NWS El Paso TX area office)
John Fausett - Warning Coordination Meteorologist
(505) 589-4088
Southeastern New Mexico... (NWS Midland TX area office)
Pat Vesper - Warning Coordination Meteorologist
(432) 563-5006
New Mexico Department of Public Safety Office of Emergency Management
Jeff Phillips, Emergency Operations Bureau
(505) 476-9677 |
weather.gov 
