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Severe Weather in the Central and Southern Plains; Rain and Mountain Snow in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies

A powerful storm is expected to bring periods of heavy rain, gusty winds, and the potential for severe thunderstorms throughout the southern to central Plains through Monday. Widespread precipitation and heavy mountain snow is expected across the Northwest and northern Rockies through Monday. Up to a foot of snow is possible across the higher elevations of the Cascades and northern Rockies. Read More >

Amarillo, TX

Weather Forecast Office

Pampa Becomes StormReady Community

Weather.gov > Amarillo, TX > Pampa Becomes StormReady Community
Pampa, TX Declared StormReady Community
 

During the first ever National Severe Weather Preparedness Week, NWS Amarillo is leading communities in the Weather-Ready Nation effort.  As part of this effort, Pama, TX officially became a StormReady community during a ceremony on April 24, 2012.  Being recognized as StormReady, residents of Pampa will now be better prepared when events like the June 8, 1995 Pampa tornado occur again.

StormReady, a voluntary program, is designed to help communities take a proactive approach to the kinds of severe weather that affect their area by improving local hazardous weather operations and heightening public awareness.  Communities work with the local National Weather Service office and state and local emergency managers to become StormReady.

The program was started by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Tulsa as an effort to educate residents about storm safety.  It is now expanding nationwide in an effort to spread information about severe weather preparedness and what to do when severe weather strikes.

For a county or community to be recognized as StormReady, it must meet predetermined criteria as set by national, regional, and local StormReady advisory boards.  The criteria includes such things as a 24-hour warning point and/or emergency operations center, promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars, have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public, create a system that monitors weather conditions locally, and develop a formal hazardous weather plan (e.g. training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises).

The goal of achieving StormReady status is to increase the chances of local citizens surviving a tornado, hurricane, flash flood, tsunami, or any other type of severe weather that threatens their area of the country.  Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are the primary focus of the Amarillo StormReady program.
 
Pictured here (L-R) are Mayor Brad Pingel, Emergency Management Coordinator Fred Courtney,
City Manager Richard Morris, and NWS Amarillo Meteorologist-in-Charge Jose Garcia.
 
NWS Amarillo Meteorologist-in-Charge Jose Garcia and Pampa Emergency Management
Coordinator Fred Courtney.
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