Severe Weather Awareness Week

Severe Weather Preparedness Week in South Dakota starts today and runs through the 21st.  Peter Rogers with the Sioux Falls National Weather Service says its a great time for you to come with a severe weather plan.  

Rogers says if you are in the path of a tornado and you are in your car, get out.

If there are no buildings to shelter in, a last resort would be to leave the vehicle and get down in a ditch or other low area.

Rogers emphasizes the importance of having a tornado shelter plan.  He says that shelter needs to be used for other wind events as well.

Rogers says severe weather warnings need to be taken seriously and reminds everyone that it can go from blue skies to a severe thunderstorm in thirty minutes if the conditions are right.

The National Weather Service advises using Severe Weather Preparedness Week to do just that… get a plan in place before severe weather hits.  Tornado season peaks in the months of May and June.  Typically a statewide tornado drill is planned but there will be no statewide drill this year.