Florida’s Severe Weather Awareness Week

February 11-15 is used to promote understanding of the various weather hazards that frequently impact the state and how to prepare for these events.

Each day of this week focusses on a different hazard. If you are interested, a detailed review of the daily hazard along with additional preparedness information is available from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (2013 Severe Weather Awareness Guide).

For more direct information, the Severe Weather Preparedness section of UF’s Emergency Management website has recently been updated and enhanced. It now contains information on our local weather hazards, including “what to know” and “what to do” points for each type of event.

A critical component of severe weather preparedness is having a method for receiving watch and warning information. A NOAA weather radio remains one of the best sources for automated warning notification. Once a watch or warning is issued, the sites below can be helpful in gathering additional information and details regarding the message:

• National Weather Service/Google Maps Radar Site (customizable with the menu at the top of the page and map controls on the right of the page)
• National Weather Service-Jacksonville Watch/Warning Page
• Google Public Alerts Page (zoomed to campus area)

If you have not taken the online BEC training for local weather hazards, presented by the National Weather Service-Jacksonville, this month is a great opportunity to do so. The approximately hour-long session details potential severe weather threats which could impact the UF campus and surrounding areas. The course can be located in the MyUFL training section (MyUFL > My Self Service > Training and Development > Request Training Enrollment). Course number is “EHS825” and the online session can be taken by anyone at UF.

Thanks,
-Kenneth

Kenneth Allen | Emergency Manager
University of Florida | Environmental Health & Safety
352-392-1591|kallen@ehs.ufl.edu
www.ehs.ufl.edu/programs/em/