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Storm Chasing
Spring storms on the horizon
new re storm
Meteorologist Robb Lawson gives a presentation on weather and storm spotting at the Crest Theater on Tuesday.

National Weather Services
The NWS offices are located in Goodland; Dodge City; Wichita; Topeka; Hastings, Nebraska; Pleasant Hill, Mo and Springfield, Mo.
Each office is staffed by a team of highly trained meteorologists, technicians, electronics technicians, information technology specialists, hydrologists and administrative assistants.
The NWS offices are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Each spring, the NMS offices that serve the state of Kansas conduct storm spotter and weather safety training sessions in most counties in the state.
The sessions are free and open to the public.
For more information about these classes visit weather.gov

Springtime brings many favorable things with it, but it also means the beginning of the storm season and being prepared for this season is important for everyone in the community.
On Tuesday the National Weather Services hosted a presentation called Storm Fury on the Plains.
This presentation went over what to look for during the storm season, safety and information for storm chasers.
“These presentations provide a lot of information for people and safety is the most important thing,” Meteorologist Robb Lawson said. “Knowing when to take shelter and what to look for is what we try and teach people about.”
The presentation began with a slide show on how to spot a severe storm, how tornadoes are formed and what the different parts of a storm cloud are called and how they play a part during a storm.
The presentation also offered the opportunity for the people attending the chance to participate in the presentation with their cell phones through the texting feature.
“We have tried a few different ways for people to participate during the presentation, but this seems to work the best and it is a lot of fun,” Lawson said.
The event was broken up into two parts. The second part was mostly videos that demonstrated what was gone over during the slide show.
The presentation lasted two hours.
According to the Kansas Emergency Management Association last year in terms of tornado count, was an active year ranking 4th highest since 1950.
By comparison, the most tornadoes ever reported in Kansas in a calendar year is 187 in 2008.
The most active month in 2015 was May with 63 tornadoes reported, which is well above the normal 23 for the month but well shy of the record 127 which occurred in May of 2008.
The most active tornado day in 2015 was May 6 when 22 tornadoes occurred, including five that resulted in several million dollars in damage.
Fortunately there were no violent tornadoes in Kansas last year, but 11 tornadoes were rated strong EF2-3 and 115 were rated weak EF0-1.
One of the more noteworthy events was a late season tornado outbreak in western Kansas. On November 16, a total of 17 tornadoes occurred between 5 and 10 p.m, including one tornado which traversed 51 miles across Seward, Meade and Gray counties. It was rated EF3 with a width of approximately 2,000 yards.