FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Emergency management departments across the state are preparing for what they consider to be the peak tornado season.
In 2018, a tornado hit Fond du Lac county. Nearly five years later, emergency service workers there are prepared in the event that a similar storm strikes again.
“We’re often the front line,” Fond Du Lac County Emergency Services and Communications Director Amy Haase said.
“We get warning as soon as warning is issued from the weather service, and what my staff here does then is set off, for the entire county, all of the tornado sirens.”
Thursday afternoon, Fond du Lac was under a tornado watch — meaning conditions were right for a tornado to form. Haase said when a watch turns into a warning, all county workers need to be ready to take action.
“A lot of the local response agencies, the fire departments, the police departments and them send out members — or when they’re out on the road, they’re looking at the conditions and reporting weather back to us on the radio.”
Emergency service officials are stressing the importance of tornado safety, but today, everyone will be able to practice it themselves during the statewide tornado drill.
“Have a safety plan, know where their shelters are — either within their home or within their community, where they might go,” Haase said. “And practice that plan.”
Wisconsin averages about 23 tornadoes a year. They’re most common in June, but it is possible to see a tornado in any month.
“It’s that unstable atmosphere the brews up the storms that we see, and usually, every severe thunderstorm has a possibility of spinning off a tornado with it,” Haase said.
It’s for that reason that the county is in constant communication with the National Weather Service. But it highlights a need for everyone else to be prepared as well.
“We recommend that people have multiple ways to receive weather warnings with the sirens or the NOAA weather radios or their phones, apps, TV,” Haase said.
As part of today’s statewide drill sirens will go off twice, at 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
