The National Weather Service in Birmingham has placed Cherokee County and surrounding areas into an Enhanced Risk for severe weather for late Monday afternoon. Right now, it looks like the greatest threat will be for the potential of tennis ball sized hail, tornadoes and 70 mph straight-line winds. Cherokee County EMA Director Shawn Rogers states, “this is not a threat to be taken lightly. There is a significant amount of instability in the air and from what we are seeing right now the conditions tomorrow will be favorable for tornados, strong straight-line winds and very large hail.”
The National Weather Service is saying we can anticipate a Tornado Watch to be issued some time Monday. Once a Tornado Watch is issued the Cherokee County Emergency Operations Center will be activated and staffed until the threat is over. The timeframe for severe weather to reach Cherokee County will be during the late afternoon into the overnight hours.
Director Rogers wants to encourage citizens to take time now to go over your family’s severe weather plan. If you haven’t already signed up for the CodeRED Warning System, now is the time to do that. You can sign up by clicking on to the CodeRED icon below.
The mobile app “Alabama Saf-T-Net” by Baron Services is an excellent app for receiving severe weather notifications. Click on the icon below and it will take you to the website to download the app either on iOS or Android.
Do you have your Severe Weather Kit in Place, do you have your Family Communications Plan in place? If you will be traveling, where will your safe places be along your route? Large hail is possible with this storm so plan accordingly.
Also make sure you have at least two ways to receive weather alerts. EMA officials will be at the Emergency Operations Center around the clock. Cherokee County EMA and WEIS Radio have partnered up and WEIS Radio will be broadcasting live from the Emergency Operations Center. This will enable listeners within the WEIS Radio coverage area to listen to 100.5 FM or 990 AM and get live updates as they are received by the EMA staff. If you’re outside the AM/FM coverage area WEIS Radio also has a mobile app where you will be able to listen live. Should there be power outages the WEIS Radio app along with the above-mentioned apps will be an excellent source to monitor the conditions so make sure the battery is charged on your mobile device.
Cherokee County EMA will continue to monitor this severe weather system as it develops and will post updates to our Facebook and Twitter pages. You can follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CherokeeCountyEMA/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cherokee_ema
