DPS Advises Campus Community to Know the Signs of a Tornado
03/09/2017

The Department of Public Safety at Southeast Missouri State University advises you to know the signs of a tornado. Weather forecasting science is not perfect and some tornadoes do occur without a tornado warning. There is no substitute for staying alert to the sky. Here are some things to look and listen for:

• Strong, persistent rotation in the cloud base.
• Whirling dust or debris on the ground under a cloud base -- tornadoes sometimes have no funnel.
• Hail or heavy rain followed by either extreme calm or a fast, intense wind shift. Many tornadoes are wrapped in heavy precipitation and cannot be seen.
• Day or night:  Loud, continuous roar or rumble which does not fade in a few seconds like thunder.
• Night:  Small, bright, blue-green to white flashes at ground level near a thunderstorm (as opposed to silvery lightning up in the clouds). These mean power lines are being snapped by very strong wind, maybe a tornado.
• Night: Persistent lowering from the cloud base, illuminated or silhouetted by lightning -- especially if it is on the ground or there is a blue-green-white power flash underneath.