When it comes to severe weather, time could be the only thing that stands between you and tragedy. Steve Naglic is the warning coordination meteorologist at columbia's National Weather Service office. He says you need to heed severe weather watches and warnings when they're issued.
"If you don't have any resource to let you know a tornado is coming, you're just playing roullette," says Naglic. "You don't know whether you're going to get hit or not."
Naglic says the best way to stay safe and keep current on warnings invest in a noaa tone alert weather radio.
"During the daytime, you might hear it on a radio station or television, but at night when you're asleep a weather radio is the only thing that can wake you up and save your life," says Naglic.
Before alerts can hit the airwaves, the action starts at the radar work station. Radar technology and a ham radio operators network allow meteorologists to get a 12 minute lead on tornadoes. Once a storm is identified as severe, it takes less than two minutes to hit weather radios.
"It's very quick," says Naglic.
But when it comes to watches and warnings, Naglic says the public needs to be prepared and understand the danger involved with severe weather.
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