Andy Bailey, warning coordination meteorologist for Pleasant Hill's National Weather Service office, teaches over 20 area residents the purpose of weather spotters and how to identify a severe storm. (Rachel Harper/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge]

Over 20 people participated in the NWS public storm spotter training session held at Marshall Municipal Airport Tuesday night, March 4, held just before Severe Weather Awareness Week March 10-14.

Severe weather in the form of tornadoes, deadly lightning, flash floods, damaging winds and destructive hail strike the area every year and sometimes with incredible violence.

The 2008 severe weather season has already been quite active across the country, so it is imperative communities and citizens prepare now, according to a press release from the National Weather Service.

Marshall Fire Chief John Rieves said, "We can't stop damage, but we can stop death and injuries."

He said in the coming year, the emergency management program for the city of Marshall will require an additional 8 to 10 spotters. The program has already acquired new radio equipment that will make the program more effective and up-to-date with technology.

Rieves said the goal of the program is to have "no spot in the county that doesn't have a set of eyes on it." Blackburn, Arrow Rock, Slater and Sweet Springs are working with Marshall to accomplish this goal.

Andy Bailey, warning coordination meteorologist, said the efforts made by Saline County really helps NWS keep residents safe and aware of what is happening and what may be coming their way.

Currently, NWS has nearly 250,000 trained spotters nationwide. The Doppler radar at Pleasant Hill gives NWS an idea of what is happening in the sky. According to Bailey, by time the radar gets to this area it is 7,000 to 8,000 feet off the ground.

"We are getting reports from the radar saying two-inch in diameter of hail, but it may melt to pea-sized hail before getting to the ground," he said. "That is why we need to have people on the ground." This allows the NWS to give accurate information and issue accurate warnings/watches to listeners.

Bailey said, "We take a trained spotter's word over our $3 million radar."

The Pleasant Hill office of NWS serves 44 counties, equivalent to about 25,000 square miles, with about 2.3 million people.

When displaying information from the radar, NWS uses "hot colors." The brighter the color the more intense echoes the radar is receiving which usually means heavy rain or hail. The radar shows the motion of the storm; whether it is moving towards or away. Blue and green colors represent areas that are moving towards the radar and yellow and red are moving away.

Bailey said when you see colors of blue, right next to red is when rotation forms in the atmosphere.

The radar used by NWS does a full scan every 4 to10 minutes and even picks up dust and insects in the air, usually represented in light blue.

NWS has radars in Topeka, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; Des Moines, Iowa; St. Louis; and Springfield.

What NWS considers a severe thunderstorm may include tornados or funnel clouds, large hail one inch in diameter or larger, flash floods or 58 mph wind gusts or greater.

The best way to be safe is to "be informed," Bailey said. "Situation awareness is the main thing. A little bit of base knowledge is going to help out in the long run."

Bailey said many people in the Kansas City area ask, "Why didn't you put the radar in the middle of Kansas City?"

"The truth is we cannot see directly above us," he said.

To help people get ready for the peak season of severe weather, the National Weather Service has joined with other state and local agencies to promote severe weather awareness week.

During Severe Weather Awareness Week, each day is used to highlight a different aspect of the week. The individual days of emphasis are as follows:

Monday -- Preparedness Day

Tuesday -- Tornado Safety Day

Wednesday -- Flash Flood Safety Day

Thursday -- Severe Thunderstorm Day

Friday -- NOAA Weather Radio Day

On Tuesday, March 11, the annual statewide severe weather drill will be conducted. All NWS offices covering Kansas and Missouri will send out a test tornado warning.

The warning will be disseminated through all communication systems and will use the emergency alert system TOR code. The broadcast media is encouraged to treat the test tornado warning as if it were an actual severe weather event.

According to the press release, this drill is an excellent time for people to practice their severe weather procedures. Businesses, schools and people at home should take a few minutes to review what they would do if they were faced with a real severe weather event.

For more information, visit the Web at http://weather.gov/kc.

Contact Rachel Harper at marshallcity@socket.net