03/28/2024
Spread the love

Severe weather season is upon us, and March 7-13 has been designated Severe Weather Preparedness Week in NC and SC. That makes this an excellent time to review severe weather plans and where safe locations are at work and home with your family. It’s also a great time to replace the batteries in your NOAA Weather Radio.

You can view information about SC Severe Weather Preparedness Week here

Additionally, the SC Statewide Tornado Drill will be on Wednesday, March 10th, at 9 AM EST. This drill will utilize a Test Tornado Warning that will activate NOAA Weather Radios.

Information about NC Severe Weather Preparedness Week can be viewed here

NC’s Statewide Tornado Drill will be on Wednesday, March 10th, at 930 AM EST. The NC drill will be broadcast as a Required Monthly Test (RMT) product. As a result, many NOAA Weather Radios (including the older Midland WR-100 radios that many schools have) will not sound an audible alert for the RMT. Instead, they may have a blinking light on the display. Since your NOAA Weather Radio may not sound an alarm at the time the RMT is issued, you will want to do one of the following:

    • Manually turn on your NOAA Weather Radio receiver and simply listen to the audio broadcast to hear when the RMT is issued. This marks the beginning of the statewide tornado drill.
    • Plan to start your tornado drill on your own at 9:30 AM.

During Severe Weather Preparedness Week, NWS Wilmington NC will be sending information to the public and partners via social media. We encourage you to help us share this information when possible. 

NWS Wilmington will be hosting several virtual SKYWARN and Weather Safety Training sessions during March into early April. Refer to the link below for information about the upcoming training.

2021 Virtual SKYWARN training

About Author