To the Editor:
(April 27, 2014) Our mission at NOAA’s National Weather Service is to provide forecasts and warnings to protect life and property. As we saw with the record tornadoes, floods and hurricanes of the past couple years, many people lost their lives in the United States despite warnings being issued. People either didn’t get warnings, did not listen or did not know what to do to get out of harm’s way.
Therefore, NOAA’s National Weather Service has embarked on a “WeatherReady” nation vision which will include increasing partnerships and redoubling our efforts on public outreach and education of severe weather and floods.
This week offers a great opportunity for all entities in New York to prepare for upcoming severe weather, tornado and hurricane season. It is imperative that our citizens be prepared for hazardous weather, whether it be a thunderstorm with frequent lightning to a flash flood, high winds or even a tornado.
We will be promoting severe weather safety among our citizens next week. Be on the lookout for public information statements with different topics all week.
For more information, visit www.weather.gov/bgm/preparednessSWAW.
David J. Nicosia, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, NOAA-National Weather Service Binghamton