As temperatures rise and winter ends, Indiana prepares for one of its most turbulent weather seasons. Thunderstorms, damaging winds and tornados occur commonly beginning mid- to late March.
For this reason, Severe Weather Awareness week was declared March 3-9.
According to David Arnold, storm chaser and professor of meteorology, each section of the United States has a different severe weather season.
The mild winter did not affect the upcoming severe weather season. The cold weather of the past few weeks cancelled out. Severe weather occurs in March and November when the earth and atmosphere have two drastically different temperatures. In March, the earth is still cold while the atmosphere warms up, causing thunderstorms and possible tornados. Southwest America is the heart of "tornado alley," according to Arnold. He said the weather systems tend to move northeasterly, bringing tornados to the Midwest. Sirens will be tested statewide, Wednesday at 2:05 p.m. and 7:05 p.m., said David LePoris, deputy director for the Delaware County Emergency Management Agency. LePoris said the DCEMA will run the sirens for the full three minutes as they would in a real emergency. Every Friday, the sirens are tested for 15 seconds at 11 a.m. LePoris said this Friday will be no different. LePoris said when the sirens go off in real emergencies, people should stay inside. "People need to react by turning on their radios," LePoris said. "They are all conditioned to go outside and look around but run the risk of walking out into nasty winds or something." LePoris said Ball State has three sirens: the stadium, the Cooper Science Complex and the Lafollette Complex. The 9-1-1 dispatch has a control panel that can set off one or all alarms at any time. "Sometimes the alarms do go off by themselves, but 99 percent of the time they work the way they should," LePoris said.
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