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ALERT Newsletter – September 2010
Published 09/07/2010 | By KV4S
Hi Everyone,
I hope you are having a good Labor Day and are enjoying the early taste of fall. The lengthening shadows tell us that summer is slowly winding down. Soon the storms of our fall severe weather season will arrive as winter tries to sneak in and summer doesn’t want to cooperate and move out of the way.
Now is time to ask yourself a simple question. How prepared are you – I mean really?
You see we humans are reactive creatures. Once something happens and it’s over and done with THEN we train and plan for the situation that just occurred. We ready at that point. “Were ready,” we tell ourselves, and then we turn our attention to other things and then in a shorter amount of time than we think, our preparations and training fade into nothing more than a comforting myth.
The aftermath of 9-11 is a good example.
The attacks of September 11, with the vision of falling buildings, death & destruction and the assurances from our enemies that more death and destruction was on the way, made the possibility of an actual war on the “home front” more than a just little realistic.
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Many, many people began emergency preparedness activities. CERT classes were filled, people followed FEMA guidelines stockpiling the recommended items – you remember those items don’t you? Duct tape & plastic sheeting for sealing windows and vents, a three-day supply of food and water, extra meds, etc.
Then as time passed and no further attacks succeeded in being carried out we began to feel secure once again and our interest in preparedness quickly vanished. Comedians even joke about the preparations, as if people were just overreacting to yet another Y2K scare.
Yet the threat is still there. There are folk who still consider us vermin to be rid of & at least hurt badly in some way or any way possible & trying very hard to find a way to do so. Not to forget the various homegrown folk who don’t like you because “you aint one of us”, whoever that particular “us” may be.
Truth is we’re are just as vulnerable now, if not more so than we were back then, because we once again have a false sense of security. Yet the dangers are still there and the recommended preparations are just as valid today as they were in 2001.
With weather preparedness it’s the same way. It takes a killer tornado to fill stormspotter classes. Then time passes; memories fade & then interest fades. That is until the next F5 comes ripping through & the cycle repeats itself once again.
I know this sounds depressing, but it is a needed reality check.
So let’s get prepared again.
The time to prepare is now. Study, prepare and refresh your training on a regular basis. That’s the only way to stay ahead of the game.
When is the last time you’ve been to a storm spotter class? Have you ever been to a class?
Well, there’s no better time than now.
Below is the current schedule for the NWS classes, given by WCM John De Block.
If you don’t see your county listed, don’t fret too much; just go to the class nearest you. I live in Jefferson County; I’ve been to classes in Jefferson, Shelby, Bibb & Tuscaloosa Counties and an unrelated weather seminar in Montgomery. Have weather, will travel.
The training material is available online, but, I strongly recommend you attend the classes. Books are good. I eat them up, but nothing beats the “live performance”. Especially that bikini section that Mr. De Block has slipped in the wall cloud slides that aren’t given in the book.
But, for reference, here they are:
Basic Stormspotter Guide PDF – http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/basicspot.pdf
Basic Stormspotter Presentation PDF- http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/bmx/outreach/skywarn/WebBasicSpotter2009.pdf
Graduate Strom Presentation PDF – http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/bmx/outreach/skywarn/GraduateSpotterPresentation.pdf
Advanced Stormspotter Guide PDF – http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/fwd/pdf/broch_adv_spotter.pdf
Here, have a catalog of downloadable NWS products:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/?n=skywarn
Now, what about preparedness in general, or should I say “multi-hazard preparedness”?
After all, weather is only one hazard that might greet you. Lets add chemical spills (I live 1 block from an interstate filled with tankers and nutty drivers). Industrial accidents that affect a whole community. “Honey why is there kerosene coming out of the faucet?” The Boom! “What was that?” scenarios. Or, in my case, trees coming on top of your house at 5AM trying to smush you.
To expand your readiness I would recommend the following FEMA publications:
IS-22 Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness http://www.fema.gov/pdf/areyouready/areyouready_full.pdf
IS-317 Introduction to Community Emergency Response Teams
http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/downloads/training/CERT%20PMPDF.zip
and Appendix http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/downloads/training/CERTPMAppendix1-APDF.zip
You can take the CERT course at http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/training_mat.shtm#IS317
However, if you actually intend to be a CERT responder you SHOULD & MUST attend a CERT class to be certified and to lessen the likelihood of getting yourself killed in the field.
The ARES ARECC books and courses are goldmines of information. Order all three books, read them and read them again. When a local course is offered, take it. http://www.arrl.org/courses-training or
http://www.arrl-al.org/ARES_training.html
Now for the die-hard survivalist or those just plain interested, here are the old Civil Defense Manuals from the “Good Old Days”:
In time of EMERGENCY a citizen’s handbook on … Nuclear Attack … Natural Disasters
http://www.sew-lexicon.com/Civil%20Defense%20Hbk%20H-14/H-14_index.htm
| Date/Time | County | Location |
| October 5, 630 pm | Cherokee | Cedar Bluff Fire Dept Cedar Bluff |
| October 7, 7 pm | Winston | Double Springs Municipal Building Hwy 195 |
| October 14, TBD | Autauga | TBD |
| October 19, 6 pm | Montgomery | Montgomery County EMA office 911 Communications Parkway Montgomery |
| October 20, 230 pm | Lee | Public Safety Building 543 W Magnolia Ave Auburn University |
| October 20, 630 pm | Lee | Lee County EMA office 908 Ave B Opelika |
| October 21, 6 pm | Talladega | Talladega EOC |
| November 2, 630 pm | Tuscaloosa | Samantha Fire Department Samantha |
| TBD | Graduate Spotter Class | Webinar Information to Come! |
Personal And Family Survival
http://www.sew-lexicon.com/Civil%20Defense%20Manual/SM3-11_index.htm All this light reading ought to make your days bright and cheery. This of course brings me to my disclaimer. I am advocating that you remain aware of the dangers that are out there, do be prepared & do stay fresh in your training. I’m not advocating that you become a some sort of a nut wearing aluminum foil hats, constantly checking your 2012 Doomsday Clock, or waiting for a comet to fall on your lumpy head. Nor should you become a “Gloomy Gus”, always looking for the Dark Side of Life, fully expecting for the “Luck O’ The Irish to befall” & almost irritated when it doesn’t arrive. I bet each one of you suddenly had a mental image of someone I just described, didn’t you? Let’s make reasonable, well thought out preparations & then let’s go live and have some fun. Viva La Vida. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Mark’s Almanac
September is the ninth month of the year and the seventh month on the Roman calendar, which is where the month gets its name. Temperatures are still hot at the beginning of the month, but, by months end, fall will definitely be felt. Noticeable in September will be the thickening of the cat’s fur, as she begins growing her winter coat & the drift of Yellow Giant Sulphur Butterflies as they migrate towards Florida. Weather starts shifting from the summer to autumn pattern and back again. Storms resemble the August pattern, but the Bermuda High will starts shifting southward and begin weakening, which will weaken the blocking effect it has had which prevented fronts from invading from the northwest. September is the peak of the hurricane season, the actual peak being on September 10. This peak coincides with the time of “syzygy”, when the combination of the sun and moon’s gravity and autumnal equinox combine to provide the highest astronomical tides of the year. Add a hurricane’s storm surge on top of this and you can have incredibly destructive flooding. Fall begins at Autumnal Equinox on September 23, 2010 at 10:09 P.M. CDT, when the Sun crosses directly over equator and night and day is approximately the same length. One term that occasionally pops up is “equinoctial storms”. Which are severe storms in North America and the UK that supposedly accompany the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Where this belief originated is obscure. Some say perhaps from the 1700’s when sailors were greeted by West Indies hurricanes, or due to the coincidence of the first fall severe storms sometimes coming in the latter half of September. At any rate, statistics show no evidence to support the belief. On this date, if there is sufficient solar activity, and you are away from city lights, the aurora may possibly be seen, as the Equinox dates are the two most favored times of the year for auroral sightings. September’s Full Moon is “Harvest Moon” in Native American folklore. So called because the moon is larger and seems to rise at almost the same time every night, which allowed harvesting to continue on into the night. ……………………………………………………………………………………. The 2010 Simulated Emergency Test will be held on October 2. ALERT is planning to be active during the event. We will need volunteers for K4NWS. More details will be given at our next meeting. This month’s regular meeting will be on September 14 at 7PM at the National Weather Service forecast office at the Shelby County Airport, with a Board of Directors meeting following. I hope to see you there Mark WD4NYL PRESIDENTPosted in ALERT Newsletter
ALERT / National Weather Service Birmingham Coverage Area
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