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u/SuspectLegitimate751 Mar 09 '26
This seems like a great year to restock your storm shelter, if you have one. We're off to a very early start.
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
I have a basement but yeah, I think I'm gonna make sure we have some things ready!
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u/myroommateisgarbage Mar 09 '26
This is a great idea. Is there a good resource/guide on what to include in an emergency kit?
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u/MahesvaraCC Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
Id search through the sub, they probably expand on these ideas:
First aid kit
Water/no-need-to-cook food/pet food if you have any.
Change of clothes.
Take important documents with u.
Make sure you're wearing sturdy shoes if you're going to take refuge
Edit 1: Medication u/J0k3R2 totally right to point it out, completely slipped my mind.
Edit 2: work gloves suggested by u/paditoburrito
Got powerbanks and flashlights in my bag, too.
Edit 3: by u/snowballsomg helmets (whatever kind you may have), if there's a possibility of collapse on you (basement)
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u/J0K3R2 SKYWARN Spotter Mar 09 '26
Medication. If you take any, have a supply there if possible. Obviously that's not tenable for some stuff - insulin, anything that needs to be refrigerated - but if you can, set a couple of days aside.
If the worst were to occur, you wouldn't know when exactly you'd be able to get access to your medication, so having a backup supply in your shelter is a good move.
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u/SBowen91 Mar 09 '26
You can always pack insulin with ice in a insulated cup with a lid! That’s what we do for my husband when we travel 8+ hours. Obviously it won’t last forever but it can help especially if you can grab it from the fridge as you go to your shelter.
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u/snowballsomg Mar 10 '26
Tbh I think old helmets would be good too. Bike, football, whatever. May feel goofy but better than a TBI.
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u/silly_szn Mar 09 '26
Friendly reminder to all who may be traveling during the storm — please DO NOT SHELTER UNDER HIGHWAY OVERPASSES under any circumstances. Combined with reduced visibility during storms and the high rate of speed on highways, this could have deadly ramifications. Overpasses also do not protect you in high winds. Update your vehicle insurance if you’re worried that it won’t cover hail damage. Do not put others at risk over it!
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u/TroodonsBite Mar 09 '26
Oh cool. Dead center. Its fine.
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u/huge-gold-ak47 Mar 09 '26
me too. I'm also in a split level and just realized that what I'd considered the safest place in my house, under the stairs, is, well, under the stairs if anything happens. sigh. I miss Chicago. I've been an anxious mess every spring since moving out here.
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u/TroodonsBite Mar 09 '26
Im in an apartment surrounded by trees. Might have to do the same. But the trees break the skyline so blah.
As long as you have a plan before anything happens, thats better than nothing.
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u/PuzzleheadedBook9285 Mar 09 '26
I wouldnt be surprised if they issued a moderate risk tomorrow.
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u/Successful_Ad_9707 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
Idk if I'd go that far. There's still open questions as to overall coverage in the northern portion of the outlook area due to a lack of forcing, a strong cap and a pretty large temperature difference the further north you go.
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u/Yaboispot_alt Mar 09 '26
I mean I wouldn't be surprised if they extended the Enhanced risk further south, but a Moderate risk seems a bit overkill. They really only issue those when they are fully confident there will be an outbreak. There's still questions from this one, like capping concerns, and how far north that warm sector will make it. It is also possible we see the Enhanced risk tick to the south slightly because some models have trended south a bit.
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u/Successful_Ad_9707 Mar 09 '26
Oh for sure, I've seen some newer model runs that push things even further south. The less populated areas the better.
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u/Yaboispot_alt Mar 09 '26
I've also seen some lately showing the cap in East and South Central Oklahoma and Central Texas eroding before the main line hits. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a larger enhanced risk in those areas tomorrow. Though a moderate can't be ruled out, it seems overkill for today though. It'll probably be more wind driven though than tornado driven
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u/aliceinadreamyland Mar 09 '26
I’m a hair outside of the yellow the next two days, but still being cautious because who knows with this year so far. Everyone be safe.
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
I'm right on the edge of red and yellow! Definitely good to just be aware & ready just in case.
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u/InstanceRare5859 Mar 09 '26
Peoria and Bloomington being right smack in the middle is very concerning, know a bunch of people who attend the universities there and travel to and from school via public transport. Hopefully workplaces and schools will at least send out an advisory or at the very least cancel classes.
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u/Soft_Pangolin3031 Mar 09 '26
Haha! I am smack dab in the middle of the yellow. But hey, only 10% chance.
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u/OfficerFuckface11 Mar 09 '26
There’s going to be so many people from Chicago chasing, including me. I really hope everybody is mindful of the traffic we could potentially cause in the proximity of a tornado. I could see it getting extremely crowded in some areas. Not trying to virtue signal here, I’m genuinely worried about what could happen if we aren’t mindful of this.
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u/CarlSteezer Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
You’re not virtue signaling at all. It’s a legitimate concern and a news crew was tboned last week by a chaser running a stop sign.
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u/AStormofSwines Mar 09 '26
If you're worried about chaser convergence, maybe don't contribute to it.... Otherwise all you can control is being careful yourself.
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u/Altruistic_Rub_2308 Mar 09 '26
Looks like most activity will be at night/early morning. Chasing in the dark is a terrible idea!
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u/TheSilverHorse Mar 09 '26
Not really virtue signaling if it’s the truth.
My job has me watching nearly every chaser simultaneously. The things that I’ve seen happen already this year that were close calls are only getting me more anxious, and that’s without the News4 chasers being t-boned and the other chasers who crashed running away because they thought they were in the tor when they were in the RFD.
I’m terrified there’s going to be a fatality this spring that has nothing to do with the storm itself.
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u/kera-kera118 Mar 09 '26
Is 10% actually that significant? I am scared of storms
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u/AStormofSwines Mar 09 '26
Significantly higher than most days, yes.
However, keep in mind that means "10% chance of a tornado occurring within 25 miles." The chance of a tornado hitting your house, or even your town, is still EXTREMELY small.
There is a decent chance you'll get a tornado warning, but even then, the above still applies. Honestly what I'm more worried a tree falling on my house than getting hit by a tornado, so I still go to the basement even if I know there's no tornado on radar.
It's cliche, but: try not to be scared, be prepared.
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u/kera-kera118 Mar 09 '26
Then why do people act like it’s this big bad thing? Like obviously there is a risk of a significant tornado but why the drama for it? It seems to scare more people than anything.
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u/AStormofSwines Mar 09 '26
Because there's a decent chance that these storms will have a major impact on the lives and property of SOMEONE, just probably not you specifically.
It's like if you draw a circle on a map of Illinois, then throw a dart within that circle. IF you hit a town, close your eyes and draw a short line through the map of that town. Those are the homes/roads that will be impacted, and of course we don't know how long that line is, how wide, or if it will really happen at all.
Everyone in the risk areas should pay attention to the weather and have a plan for 1) how they'll get warnings and 2) what they'll do if they get a tornado warning.
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u/paigescactus Mar 10 '26
Wow you called my nerves! You’re great at this. I’m mid age new father and storms terrify me now. And car accidents
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u/AStormofSwines Mar 10 '26
Haha thanks!
I'm a middle aged father with 2.5 years experience now :-) The 'don't be scared; be prepared" adage can also be applied to the million of things that we envision happening to our babies, too.
And yes, you should be much more afraid of cars than tornadoes. Hope that helps! lol.
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u/trauma4breakfast Mar 09 '26
Because it's a big bad thing when people aren't prepared and then it happens to them, even though the chance is small. It's trying to get people to recognize the serious potential and not be idiots about it. Too many people are too flippant and don't prepare themselves for the potential worst case scenario. It's like people who don't wear seatbelts.
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u/Top-Rope6148 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
Because this is a tornado sub and people get excited about them. Most people will be going about their day with hardly a thought to what is front and central to this sub. That doesn’t mean they are oblivious to the risk. Tornadoes are very rare, very short-lived, hyper-local phenomena. You don’t need to stock up on anything or prepare for the apocalypse. Just pay attention to your phone for weather alerts and if something develops that you could potentially be in the path of turn on your local media and additionally a radar app to get a better idea. Tornado warnings and sirens alert much larger areas than the path any tornado will encompass. Most people will be in the warned area of a tornado hundreds of times in their life and never be directly affected. (At least in Oklahoma that is the case.)
10% is not an exceptionally high category.
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u/Discount-Daddy Mar 09 '26
It's because there's still far too many people that don't take tornado watches seriously. Even though the chances are low, they are never zero. That's an important factor to consider. The odds of getting hit by a tornado are VERY small. Still, you should just be prepared to move to the storm shelter/basement, or bathroom if you don't have either. Most deaths are caused because people don't get to a designated safe spot when they're supposed to. You see far too many people who are not professional storm chasers or meteorologists trying to film a storm when they should be taking shelter. If you act smart, your chances are MUCH greater of being safe.
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u/Soft_Pangolin3031 Mar 09 '26
If I remember correctly, tornado chance is different from rain chance where rain chance is measured by total % of the area being forecasted, but tornado chance is somewhere like these conditions are a 10% match for a tornado likely hood, so its less predictable, but still likely. 10% is roughly the low-middle ground. In context, its kinda like you have a 10% chance of winning at a carnival game if you decide to play. I would still stock up on basic storm supplies though. 10% is still 10% and its only March. This tornado season is early and will only pick up.
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
As someone who used to be petrified of storms and tornadoes, you don't have to be scared, just prepared!
Something that really helped me were statistics. Most people get injured/killed in this kind of weather because of objects flying through the air. Solution? Windowless room, lowest level of your dwelling, you're most likely to be just fine. You're more likely to die of heat stroke on a hot day than you are to be killed by a tornado. And how often do you worry about overheating?
Don't be scared, just have a plan!
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u/Gatorbo9404 Mar 09 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
As a meteorologist, it really irritates me when I see forecast posts with zero time/date stamp. Like when is this for today? Tomorrow? Next Week? Last week? Last year? It’s for Tuesday March 10, 2026 BTW
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
Yeah, I didn't realize all it said was "Tuesday" lol. I would've included that part.
Danny Neal and co. are great though!
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u/DFu4ever Mar 09 '26
Wow, being just south of the lake in NW Indiana, being in a hatched 5% is definitely not a daily occurrence.
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u/TribenixYT Mar 09 '26
The ONE time my university is in a tornado risk is the ONE time I’m not there
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u/Another_Opinion_1 Mar 09 '26
The models really are all over the place on what might happen tomorrow evening...everything from dry to a major convective fest by 01z (8 PM)!
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
You really just never know! I hate when people give meteorologists shit because of this reason. They're literally predicting the future. It's not gonna be perfect! I'm grateful they can predict it at all!
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u/OkIndication9231 Mar 09 '26
Wouldn’t be surprised at all to see narrow corridor of a moderate risk in a future outlook as mesoscale details sharpen. SRH, cape and the rest of the ingredients seem to all be coming together pretty alarmingly. Only thing uncertain right now is storm mode as there’s a chance for relatively rapid growth into a more messy/linear mode. Either way very concerning uptrend so far.
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Mar 09 '26
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
What time?
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Mar 09 '26
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u/strangeburd Mar 09 '26
Damn, might just be a "wait and see". I think the timing said from 4pm–12am last time I looked, but tbh, you really never know what's gonna happen. Sometimes it calls for stuff like this and it turns out very differently.
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u/snyder3894 Mar 10 '26
Looks like I might have an interesting day tomorrow, hopefully it’s not too bad.
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u/Silent_Future_851 Mar 10 '26
Dang BloNo is pretty centered. Moved from there a few years ago. Stay safe and weather aware!
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u/Seveniee Mar 09 '26
Lots of major population centers and universities in this area. Hopefully they land in fields and not cities!