Severe Weather Awareness Week 2025: Outdoor Safety
Your Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador weather team, StormTracker 59, is once again participating in a week-long Severe Weather Awareness event hosted by the National Weather Service – Charleston in the hopes of providing helpful information to help you and your family stay safe when severe weather strikes.
For Friday, March 28th, 2025, we take a look at outdoor weather safety:
What better way to help with safety in weather than with some easy phrases! Remember the 'Turn around, don't drown' mantra for flooding? There's quite a few more for different types of severe weather we see in our region:
We see a lot of weather-related disasters in West Virginia. According to the National Weather Service, between 1980 and 2024, West Virginia has been impacted by 47 billion-dollar disasters – that's an average of about one per year! Take a look at the different types of weather-related disasters below:
Being outside during severe weather is never a good idea. Whether it's flooding, lightning, tornadoes, or some other type of severe weather – being outside during those kind of weather events can be life-threatening in some circumstances. Head indoors during severe weather and remain indoors until the impacting storm passes. And as always, never try to cross floodwaters – whether by foot or vehicle.
It's not a question of but severe weather will impact the Mountain State. We see and experience it every year in varying levels of impact and intensity. The key is to be prepared for severe weather, not scared! This is true both when inside your home and severe weather strikes, at the workplace, or outside and that's why it's important to have a plan in place for each location. Having an emergency kit is essential for being prepared!
Water (One gallon per person per day for several days, for drinking and sanitation)
Food (enough non-perishable food to last several days)
NOAA weather radio
Flashlight
First aid kit
Batteries
Whistle or air horn (to signal for help)
Mask (such as a dust mask to help filter contaminated air)
Duct tape (in case of shelter-in-place)
Boots
Helmet (protects your head in case of extreme weather, such as a tornado)
Moist towelettes (for personal sanitation)
Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
Manual can opener
Local maps
Cell phone chargers
It is recommended that you have multiple ways of receiving weather alerts. Important watch and warning information will always be displayed on 59 News with our news ticker, and our meteorologists will keep you updated on severe weather as it happens and potential incoming severe weather – our number one job is to keep you and your family safe from severe weather!
Our StormTracker 59 app, completely free on the Apple and Google Play store will enable you to set up your location to where you receive pertinent weather alert information for your specific area.
The StormTracker 59 team has you covered to help keep you and your family safe when the threat for severe weather is possible! There are multiple ways of staying up to date with us on the latest warnings for our region that would indicate this potential threat, along with watching updated daily video forecasts, and much more!
On air on WVNS-TV 59 on CBS at 5 AM, 6 AM, 12 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM and 11 PM Monday through Friday and 6 PM and 11 PM on the weekends.
On air on WVNS-TV 59 on Fox at 10 PM Monday through Sunday.
Our broadcasts are available on several digital platforms, including Paramount Plus, Youtube TV and Tubo
Online on our website here, where you can see the latest watches, warnings, forecast discussions, videos, current data and so much more!
The StormTracker 59 mobile app, free on the Apple and Google Play.
The StormTracker 59 Facebook page and Twitter page.
After the storm, when safe to do so, your voice, photos, and video can be some of the best resources your local, state, and federal meteorologists have in determining what caused storm damage. It can even be the only look we have at what is going on at ground level when severe weather strikes. For StormTracker 59 we make sharing these easy via social media, email at weather@wvnstv.com, or our community photo album on our website. Weather Together is free and easy to share photos with us and your community. Try it out for yourself here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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