| CHEAT SHEET | 5 WAYS TO STAY SAFE IN A TORNADO Average number of tornadoes that touch down in the U.S. in a typical year By Kim Cross TORNADOES Twister season is here, and it pays to be weatherwise. The author of the new book What Stands in a Storm shares tips to keep you and your family safe. 3. Get as low as possible to ride out the storm. A basement or underground storm shelter is ideal. Otherwise, find a small, windowless room on the lowest floor near the center of the house. 4. Cover up. Wear a helmet and shoes, and get under a sturdy piece of furniture or a mattress to shield yourself from flying debris. 5. Stay in touch. If you lose power, receive and share warnings via your smartphone or social media: Update via Twitter and Facebook, watch livestream TV coverage and text family when phone lines are overloaded. Though official tornado records only date back to the 1950s, twisters have fascinated people since long before Benjamin Franklin “Every home needs an NOAA Weather Radio so you chased one—on horseback—in Maryland in 1755. These rapidly won’t miss the warnings. And good smartphone apps rotating columns of air are produced by less than one percent of thunderdesigned to pass along severe weather warnings are a storms, but they don’t just form in so-called Tornado Alley in the Midwest and Deep South. “Tornadoes have been observed on every contigreat alternative, like MyWarn or WeatherRadio.” nent and in every American state at every hour of the day and in every —James Spann, award-winning meteorologist month of the year,” says Charles A. Doswell III, Ph.D., a meteorologist for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, Ala. and severe storms research scientist. Twisters are rated on the Enhanced-Fujita scale from EF0 (the mildest) to EF5 (the strongest), based on the damage they leave behind. | WIND 101 | What causes tornadoes? We’re still learning. Scientists HOW A TORNADO DEVELOPS know the atmospheric conditions present when twisters form (see “Wind 101,” right), but the exact recipe is unknown. A tornado watch means tornadoes are likely, while a warning means it’s time to take shelter. Weather radars scan the skies, but a tornado isn’t confirmed until a person sees it. That’s why meteorologists also rely on a nationwide network of 290,000 volunteer “storm spotters” trained to identify signs of tornadoes (such as strong rotation) and report Highest recorded tornado “ground truth.” To bewind speed (measured remotely come a storm spotter, by Doppler radar) Award-winning journalist Kim Cross is the author of What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in visit nws.noaa.gov/ the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South’s Tornado Alley (Simon & Schuster). skywarn and find a class near you. 302 mph See Parade.com/tornadoes for a list of the most infamous U.S. tornadoes. 6 | MAY 31, 2015 © PARADE Publications 2015. All rights reserved. GRAPHIC COURTESY OF THE WEATHER CHANNEL 1,200 1. Don’t rely only on sirens. Take cover if you do hear a siren. But be aware that sirens typically warn across entire counties (and may not apply to your exact location) and often can’t be heard inside. Instead, get a weather radio (with a cellphone charger) and a GPS-based weather app that will wake and warn you if you’re in the path. 2. Avoid mobile homes and cars. These are two of the most dangerous places to be in a twister because they’re unstable and easily destroyed. Get out of the car or mobile home and into a building or an underground shelter. Overpasses provide little protection. Only as a last resort, lie in a ditch or depression, covering your head, until it passes.