Severe Weather Preparedness Week: Week overview and SPC outlooks

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- It’s Severe Weather Preparedness Week in Indiana. This week is set aside for weather educators to refresh people's memory on what to do when severe weather strikes.

There are topics for every day, including an overview of watches and warnings, Storm Prediction Center outlook levels, and their meanings, flood coverage, hail, lighting, and how to be part of the Weather Ready Nation.

We will be informing you all throughout the week about these topics and more, but one of the biggest things to remember as we’re going through this week is that Tuesday, at 11 am EDT, there is going to be a statewide tornado drill.

The Storm Prediction Center issues outlooks every day that go out as far as eight days. These outlooks include severity ratings indicated by color similar to ABC57’s own Threat Tracker.

There are six levels, Thunderstorm, Marginal, Slight, Enhanced, Moderate, and High.

All of the levels include the risk of lightning and flooding for an area, but once you get past the “Thunderstorm” level, the SPC would be expecting some of the thunderstorms to be severe, which means they would have wind gusts over 58 mph, and/or hail 1 inch in diameter, and/or a tornado.

It’s unlikely to see a tornado at the marginal level, but not unheard of. Even without a tornado, severe weather can still be destructive so when the SPC issues their outlooks, it is important to stay updated and informed, especially if your area starts to go over a Marginal risk.