Day three of Severe Weather Awareness and Safety week focuses on tornadoes.

A tornado is defined as a rapidly rotating column of air in contact with the ground.  While tornadoes can form at any point in the day, they are most common in the late afternoon and early evening hours between April and June.

Dallas County Emergency Management Coordinator Barry Halling says when you hear there is a warning in your area, the best thing you can do is take cover immediately.

“The simplest thing to remember is just put as many walls between you and the storm as possible, that’s the easiest thing to remember.  What would you do at home?  Well you would go to your basement.  What would you do at your office?  Well if you don’t have a basement you could crawl under something heavy like a desk or a work bench or those kinds of thing” says Halling.

Today Iowa will run their statewide tornado drill, which Halling says is the perfect opportunity for everyone to practice their severe weather plans.

“Employers, businesses, schools, cities should at this point, on this day practice their safety tips.  What would they do when the warning sounds? Because that’s not a time to have to stop and think about it.”

The Raccoon Valley Radio Severe Weather Action Team will be on alert for a special weather program and the statewide tornado drill beginning at 10am this morning.  Tune in to hear more from Halling and other local officials as we discuss our plans to bring you up to the minute weather information when storms hit Dallas, Greene or Guthrie County.