Spring Weather Safety Campaign - Tornado Drill

Severe Weather Safety Campaign March 5 - March 9, 2018
MOCK TORNADO DRILL

As part of the Southeast Texas Spring Weather Safety Campaign, a mock tornado drill will be conducted on Wednesday, March 7th 2018 at 10 am.

The purpose of the drill is to give Southeast Texans a chance to exercise what actions they would take in the event of an actual warning. When the mock tornado warning for the drill is issued, schools are encouraged to exercise their tornado plans moving students to safe locations within the school. If your school does not have a severe weather preparedness plan, contact your county's director of emergency management or the Houston/Galveston National Weather Service. A guide for developing an emergency plan can be found here.

Here are the plans for the drill:

At approximately 10:00 am, a test tornado warning message will be sent by the Houston/Galveston NWS as a Required Weekly Test message on NOAA Weather Radio. The event code for an actual warning will not be used. The test warning will be in effect for 15 minutes. The Emergency Alert System will not be activated. A short message will also be send on Twitter (@NWSHouston) to kick off the drill.
At approximately 10:15 am a Public Information Statement will be issued to cancel the mock Tornado Warning and will be played on NOAA weather radio. This will serve as the all clear message and will signify the end of the drill. A short all clear message will also be sent via Twitter (@NWSHouston).

Schools that participate with a tornado drill should activate their emergency procedures when they receive the mock Tornado Warning. Once all of the preparedness actions have been taken and the students have been moved to your prearranged shelter locations, you can consider that the drill is over for your school.

Feedback after the drill is very important. Information about the public's ability to hear the warning is needed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our tornado warning communication system. Please email dan.reilly@noaa.gov with any feedback from the drill.

Spring Weather Safety Campaign - Tornado Drill

MOCK TORNADO DRILL