April showers brings weather awareness series to the Times-Tribune

Apr. 11—In a not so distant past (December 2021), most of Mayfield, Kentucky was tragically flattened by a large tornado. This event unfortunately brought the reality of the treacherous impact severe weather could bring to the people of the Commonwealth.

Over 80 lives lost, countless homesteads and businesses gone forever. Nothing could be rebuilt overnight.

This brought the topic of severe weather readiness into the homes of our people and highlighted awareness to the seriousness of the matter to social media.

Kentucky does not lie within Tornado Alley but the Mayfield tornadoes showed us the possibilities the sky can produce and how we can better prepare for such tragedies.

It was a huge reality check for myself, especially as a parent.

At the time of the Mayfield tragedy, I worked for my University newspaper and a team from our publication went to gather information from locals in the Mayfield area.

The photos and stories they brought back hammered the seriousness even more into my brain.

I am a mother and the thought of this tragedy happening to my children and me scared me. If you are a parent, you understand how we would do anything to protect our children.

I did what I knew best. I started studying severe weather and looked into credible resources like the National Weather Service to get some guidelines on how I could best protect my family and myself.

It all started with a social media post I seen in which a family started packing severe weather bags for all their children when they knew bad storms were in the forecast. Something as simple as a backpack with their personal information in it, flashlights, a whistle, protein bars, and a few water bottles. The time has passed from that moment but the fascination with storms continued for me.

As a journalist, I really feel called to educate the community on important matters through monthly series in the Times-Tribune. I feel blessed to be able to educate the community. Since the beginning of the year, I have educated the community on getting healthier with local resources in the community, cardiovascular health, animal shelters and this month it only felt right to do one on severe weather since April is the month Kentucky sees the most tornados, according to statistics gathered by the National Weather Service in Jackson.

With a topic so serious, I wanted to educate myself before I educated others. I chose to be trained as a storm spotter through a National Weather Service in Laurel County last month in preparation of this series.

I learned how to identify different storms both in real time and on radar. Additionally I learned about the importance of severe weather safety. With my newly acquired knowledge I am able to analyze storm data on radar and report active weather events and damage to the National Weather Service in Jackson.

I was honored to be able to sit down with Jane Marie Wix, NWS warning coordination metrologist for Jackson, to get additional information for this series. I will be covering topics in which she advised me was the most needed for the community.

You will be able to see what I am including in my severe weather kit as I build one for the spring season as advised by Wix.

I will include what safety precautions one should take if severe weather does find you and precautionary measures to take before the storm reaches your location.

Additionally I will break down what certain weather statements mean and what to look out for when these Watches, Warnings and Advisories are issued for your area.

I hope you will follow this series. As I share my journey in preparing for the spring storm season, I hope it starts discussions to help prepare you and your family in case of treacherous weather events.

I would love to know what you and your family do to prepare for storms. Reach out to me at cgibson@thetimestribune.com to share your thoughts, ideas and experiences with me. Your comments may be featured in this series.