Daviess County Tornado Alerts: Sign Up for the New System

When I was a kid here in Daviess County, we essentially had just one severe weather season. At least, that's what I remember. Our severe weather season was in spring, roughly April through end of June. If we were going to have severe storms and potential tornadoes, they typically happened within that time frame.

I have two vivid memories of such storms. I remember playing baseball at Philpot Elementary School one evening. I remember the field being evacuated because we got word of a tornado warning. Well, I played for Thruston. I remember my parents and I getting in the car, driving to my grandparents' neighbor's house, and climbing into the cellar. It was dark and it smelled like potatoes.

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I also remember sitting in my 2nd grade class at Thruston Elementary one day. The windows of Mrs. Hassan's classroom faced west. A miserably dark storm approached the school. Literally, my classmates and I were watching the storm clouds barrel east, getting closer and closer. Eventually, we were notified that there was a tornado warning and we all moved to the hallway where we hunkered down and tucked our heads between our knees. That was scary as hell and I remember it like it was yesterday, though that was about 45 years ago.

Today, our severe weather isn't confined to just one three-month window. Because of ongoing climate change and where we sit geographically (directly in the line of collision between cold air from the north and warm air from the south), we now have two distinct severe weather seasons here in western Kentucky and southern Indiana. Obviously, spring is still one of them.

However, we have developed a second severe weather season that hits us late in the year. As a matter of fact, some of the most powerful tornadoes in the area recently have occurred as fall transitions to winter. Examples include the December 10th, 2021 tornado in far western Kentucky and the January 3rd, 2000 tornado here in Owensboro.

As our weather continues to get more unpredictable, it's becoming more and more important to find ways to keep locals safe and sound. So, to help make people aware of potentially dangerous weather events as quickly and uniformly as possible, Daviess County Emergency Management has created the Daviess County Mass Notification System. The system launched in July and is designed to alert local residents of emergency situations like tornado warnings, boil water advisories, etc.

Daviess County Emergency Management continues to add names to the subscriber list and recently conducted its first official test of the system. As we approach our second severe weather season of the year, now is a great time to add your name to that list. I just did it myself.

If you are a Daviess County resident and would like to sign up for the alerts, you can become a subscriber by CLICKING HERE.