Northwest Iowa — As Severe Weather Awareness Week continues, it’s time to talk about hail and strong winds.
Severe thunderstorms can and occasionally do produce tornadoes. But the National Weather Service wants us to remember that these thunderstorms are dangerous in their own right.
Warning Coordination Meteorologist Peter Rogers at the weather service’s Sioux Falls office tells us sometimes severe thunderstorms can actually be WORSE than tornadoes.
Rogers says we often fall into the trap of thinking only about colored boxes on the screen, and therefore treat all severe thunderstorm warnings the same. But the weather service reminds you to LISTEN to the entire warning so you know what to expect, as a severe thunderstorm warning is issued for everything from storms just barely meeting the criteria all the way up to derechoes that can sweep an entire state all at once with devastating winds and hail.
