A Day In The Life Of A NWS Meteorologist: Issuing Severe Weather Warnings (Day 4 of 14)

Have you ever seen a severe thunderstorm warning, tornado warning, or flash flood warning scrolling across your television screen and wonder how it got there? Well it starts here at the National Weather Service, where during inclement weather we are constantly monitoring the radar and other data sources to find any features which may indicate a threat to the safety of the community or a threat to their property. During severe weather, getting a prompt warning to you is our top priority. To expedite the process, we use a piece of software called WarnGen to graphically create a warning polygon for the area we expect to be affected, and select the text that best describes the hazard. The whole process from noticing a severe thunderstorm to the sounding of the alert on the weather radio will typically take less than 90 seconds!

Day 3: Analyzing Weather Data

Day 2: Weather Observations

Day 1: Introduction