Pam Knox, Director of UGA Weather Network has shared a weather update- Please read below.
“This weekend we are likely to see some unusually strong storms and potential tornadoes moving through the state, especially overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. The center of action today will be along a line from Iowa to Mississippi, but that line will be moving east over the next two days. Saturday will see our risk rise during the day and some individual supercell storms may occur out ahead of the main line of storms during the day. I expect to see the main line enter the state late in the day on Saturday in the northwest corner and progress through the state from NW to SE overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. If you are in the southeast half of the state, you may see the line move through sometime Sunday morning, so if you are planning to go to church or out golfing or doing field work, be sure to check the weather before you go. You do not want to be caught out in the open away from shelter if a strong storm approaches! Fortunately, severe weather often weakens overnight due to the lack of energy from sunlight, but the danger is higher because people are less aware of what is going on.
If you have time today or Saturday morning, take a walk through your yard and bring in any loose toys, tools, furniture or other potential wind-blown material that could hit your windows, vehicles, or siding. If you have dead limbs in the trees near where you live, it might be a good time to remove those too.
Since you all live in the South, you should already know the drill for severe weather. Make sure your NOAA weather radio is on so you can get notice of any tornado or severe thunderstorm warnings in your area. If you don’t have a NOAA weather radio, then make sure your cell phone is set to receive severe weather notices and that it is charged and the volume is up, especially overnight. Sirens are not useful for most of the state since they are mostly located in urban areas and depend on someone to turn them on, which does not always happen overnight. And you can’t usually hear them if you are inside a building. Identify a shelter that will keep you safe from destructive winds and let your families know where to go. The best shelter is going to be on the lowest floor or in the basement if you have one in a room with no windows unless you happen to have a storm shelter on your property. Bathrooms are more likely to survive direct hits from strong winds because the plumbing adds a little extra structural strength. If you have helmets (bike, football, pith, or whatever) then use them in the shelters since head injuries are one of the biggest causes of injuries and death in severe weather. Do not try to ride out the storm in a mobile home or car but get to somewhere safer inside a building. If you are in a church with a big open span worship center or sanctuary, get out of the wide open area and move to somewhere safer, since big auditoriums have less structural roof strength than smaller spans.”
