powered by Palmer's Roofing J ands Auto Supply Bumper to Bumper Fort Smith therapy Terry's Place welcome back everybody to another Weather Wisdom Wednesday we're getting this back in in uh back to going uh we did do one of these posts originally you can check it out over on YouTube and uh here on YouTube you can check it out in uh the playlist section of that and we have the Weather Wisdom Wednesdays where we break down just stuff we often talk about we done the severe weather outlook uh already and today we're going to talk about what is a severe thunderstorm watch and warning there's a lot of stuff here and uh I want to want to take it slow here and tell you a little more about this a severe thunderstorm watch let's start off with that a severe thunderstorm watch means that conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms and these usually will go for over a few hours maybe half a day and this will go for a large area this isn't necessarily just one area this could go for multiple counties even state or even multiple States in some cases um basically what it means is hey the conditions above you although there may not be storms on going in your area it may not even be cloudy at that time when a severe thunderstorm watch comes out but it means hey conditions above you are are favorable for the chance of severe thunderstorm development it means hey stay aware there's a chance of severe weather today it doesn't mean that you're going to specifically see a severe thunderstorm but it means hey the chances are favorable and the conditions are favorable for that potential and uh basically it means just stay stay aware stay ready to act in case a severe thunderstorm warning is issued now a severe thunderstorm warning is for usually sometimes a smaller area depending on if it's in a line it may cover more of a broader area but usually it's for maybe even just a county a town or a city or a smaller area for a single storm or line of Storms and what this means is hey that severe thunderstorm severe weather has been reported by spotters or indicated by radar and it basically means take action hey if you're outside come indoors back away from Windows stay away from uh just stay away from the exterior walls and such there as well they usually uh you know once again Encompass a smaller area around a city or a small County these may be impacted by large Hil damaging wind these are indicated or identified by the national foreca National Weather Service forecasters or uh the uh radar or train spotter slaw enforcement uh who is watching this storm um once again your severe thunderstorm warnings basically mean hey there's that there's a storm and it's producing or has a chance to produce severe weather that's when you take action and get get away from outdoors and get indoors and just stay weather aware and continue to watch for more updates on that storm and let it pass over you and just continue to monitor it because it could get stronger um once again um the severe thunderstorm warnings are issued by your local National Weather Service offices and for us here in Southwest Aransas what you see here is this map this map shows us uh where well here in Southwest Arkansas for Arkansas you see the National Weather Service in Little Rock covers portions of our coverage area from pulk mcgomery Garland Hot Springs Grant Dallas Calhoun wah Clark Pac counties and then the National Weather Service in treport covers the Howard severe Little River hinston Nevada little or Miller Lafayette County Columbia and Union County areas these are your local National Weather Service offices these are in charges these are in charge of all your warning when you get a watch uh or a severe thunderstorm watch these usually come in uh these usually come together from your Storm Prediction Center the Storm Prediction Center is the people who put out the severe weather watches the or the the severe thunderstorm watches the tornado watches the severe weather outlooks your mesoscale discussions which we'll talk about those moving forward as well but that cover those are more of a general area now they do work uh in hand with those local offices as well but your local National Weather Service offices really help you uh if you don't know them go te check their uh Facebook pages out there look it up on Facebook or not on Facebook but uh you can look it up on there too but look up the National Weather Service on um on the internet you can click your specific Zone and actually or your specific County area or state area and it'll pull up that area and you can actually get a lot of information weather information for your specific area there as well um severe thunderstorm warnings not many people know this but they do have different categories or tags you have a base severe thunderstorm warning that's just severe thunderstorm warning it's a default and that's for 58 mph wind gust or 1 in size hell or us quarter size inch hell um once again it can be either one or both of them this will show up as 60 mph wind gust on the warnings um these uh These Warnings don't activate the don't don't necessarily activate the weather alert system that you have or weather emergency alert system that you have on your phones um but then there's a step up there's a considerable damage threat tag with these and you have to kind of dig in these severe warnings when you get them on your phone to find these different tags or like where it says 60 mph wind gust and one in size hell you kind of have to scroll through the severe warning and I know there's a lot of information there but it'll tell you in dots at the bottom of the severe warning these considerable D or destructive tags storms or uh or information there as well but what this considerable damage thread is is a for the potential of 70 M wind gust or and one uh one and 34 of an inch size Hil or golf ball size Hil or larger These Warnings also don't necessarily cause the weather emergency alert system to go off but then you have another step up which is a destructive tag that means that there's that potential for either 80 M wind gust or higher or two 2 and 3/4 of an inch size hail or baseball size or higher these will cause the weather emergency alert system to go off on your phones when you get like a flash flood emergency or tornado warning or something of that nature those will go off as well but uh to find that once again you have to scroll kind of through the bottom of the warning then you also do have a tornado possible tag severe thunderstorm warning um what these do uh is basically this means a severe thunderstorm has some potential for producing a tornado although for forecast or Confidence from the national weather service is not high enough to issue a tornado warning basically this is the middle ground of hey watch the storm closely be ready because if that if there if there's an area of rotation they think they go okay hey it's not high enough yet to issue a tornado warning but let's put this on it and let's be prepared because if it does get stronger a tornado warning could be coming we've seen this multiple times here locally and uh that always just means stay weather aware and make sure when make it a habit when you see a severe thunderstorm warning come acoss across on your phone or your app to scroll down to the bottom of the warning and just see what it says read through it and just make it a habit to understand that and as always we're going to spend time breaking down basically all these different type of warning and watches that you that we receive on Wednesdays um here in the afternoon once again this is going to be a little repetitive with a different type of severe warning or different type of warnings uh you'll get the gift of it watches basically mean the conditions are favorable warnings mean that uh basically think of it like a cupcake you have all the stuff there but it's not baked yet whenever it's a watch but whenever it's a warning it means you've baked it and it's out of the oven in your hand ready to eat but in terms of this it's it's put those it put those conditions together and uh has produced a severe thunderstorm um as always these can these can be just as dangerous if not more in some cases than a tornado warning in some ways uh but as always make sure to stay weatherwear all severe warnings all weather warnings are are are either dangerous in some way or are there to notify you hey there is a potential for some danger with this storm so just remember that and as always have a good rest of your Wednesday be on the lookout for this evening's post uh for the sixday forecast over on Facebook and see you guys here on YouTube tomorrow morning for another morning Outlook come Thursday morning and as always have a good rest of your uh Wednesday here and thank you guys very much for trusting us right here with your source for all things Southwest Arkansas weather [Music] [Music]