Weather Preparedness

"Oh, honey, this weather!", said my grandmother every time I got on the phone with her. I can still hear her saying it. And I think of it every time it's hotwindyhumidcold, you name it.

But one thing you must know about living in, residing in, or staying in Alabama, is to pay attention to the weather.

Many a boater have been out on the lake having the time of their lives, pulling kids on tubes, enjoying the sun and the music when OUT OF NOWHERE, seemingly, a wall of rain blowing sideways shows up with white cps and forces the captain to act fast and get everyone to safety.

Alabama in the summer, as you know, is HAWT. That's why we love the lake. All that heat and humidity can culminate into some spectacular storms. We have it all here - microbursts, straight line winds, tornadoes, and lightning. Lots of lightning. You may be surprised, as we were when we moved here, that Alabama is part of Dixie Alley, a tornado zone that has more tornadoes than tornado alley. For reference, in 2022, there were 98 tornadoes in Alabama, whereas Kansas, there were 68. Average annual tornadoes in Alabama is 44. Tornado season is March to May, and again in November to December(or even January as in this year).

• Get to know James Spann and Don Strength. James Spann is on Instagram as spannwx and Facebook as James Spann ( look for the blue check mark). He streams live weather updates on Facebook throughout the evening and knows his Alabama geography like the bank of his hand. he has a saying, "respect the polygon" which means, if you see a red polygon drawn around your county, he will call it out and let you know that you need to seek shelter immediately. If he gets down to his suspenders, as he undresses throughout the stressful events of the night, you know you need to be in a safe place! He has walked us through many, many scary nights and is a local hero. The only downside isthat by the time the storms get to Randolph County, that is as far as his coverage goes, thanks to the TV station he works for. In that case, he'll hand you over to Don Strength.
• Get a radar app on your phone. Check said radar often, even if the skies are blue.
• If it starts thundering, get out of the water. Period. Lightning strikes to boats and to water while swimming can be fatal.
• Get a weather radio. NOAA Weather Radios may seem old school, but if you program you county and local surrounding counties, you will be amazed at how many times that thing goes off in the middle of the night so that you can get to the basement or central part of your home, safely with your family.
• The Randolph County Commission has purchased an emergency alert system called Hyper-Reach that is free to the public to sign up. Enroll by calling or texting "Alert" to 256-540-8664 or by going to the website https://hyper-reach.com/alrandolphsignup.html so that you can receive messages for emergencies on your phone. Tornado sirens have been taken off line due to maintenance costs, so this is the emergency system in place.
• Tornado warnings and watches are important, but pay attention to severe thunderstorm warnings as well. That's when the straight line winds and/or microbursts show up and can be just as destructive as tornadoes. As us how we know!

We just want you to stay safe out there, folks!