SEVERE WEATHER ALERT
Spring and summer storms present school bus drivers, students an entirely different set of circumstances than those in winter WRITTEN BY DR. ED BROTAK
S
evere thunderstorm and tornado events are most common in the spring, and there are major differences between how student transporters should handle them compared
to winter weather. But both conditions have something in common: We don’t want school buses loaded with students stuck in either of these elements. During severe winter weather, especially when there is a lot of ice on the roads, we’d prefer the students remain safe and warm at home. But that can all change when a severe thunderstorm or, worse, a tornado strikes at a mo- ment’s notice. Many homes as well as school sites located within Tornado Alley have shelters where students and others can huddle for safety. But that doesn’t mean they are 100-percent safe there. And, as we saw in late Feb- ruary when an uncharacteristically early tornado hit the Eastern Seaboard, many areas not accustomed to dealing with these storms can be caught unaware and unprepared. If severe weather threatens during the middle of the school day, we have some time for hopefully the storm to pass before worrying about transporting the students back home. And most of these tornado situations are over fairly quickly. Keep in mind that although torna- does are most common in the late spring in the Great
66 School Transportation News • MAY 2016
Understanding the behavior of severe spring and summer storms can greatly assist student transportation emergency planning and training.
Plains and Midwest, tornadoes have occurred in all 50 states and in every month. Tunderstorms, which can produce severe weather including tornadoes, develop quickly, sometimes in the matter of minutes, and they can move rapidly at speeds of up to 50 mph. Tey are relatively small and the area that would actually be affected by extreme weather is usually less than a mile wide although sometimes several miles long. Tunderstorms cannot be forecast ahead of time, not if we’re talking about exact location and time. Te best meteorologists can do before the event is to say that an area has the potential for storm development. It is only after the storms develop that we can track them on radar and be more precise in terms of when and where damage may occur. And this only gives a short warning, typically less than an hour. But these storms tend to pass quickly and things can, hopefully, get back to normal. When meteorologists talk about “severe weather,”
they are typically referring to “severe thunderstorms” or tornadoes. A “severe thunderstorm” is one that can produce strong, straight-line winds of up to 100 mph and can include large hail. Tere is seldom specific warning of lightning, which by definition occurs in all thunderstorms. Flash flooding that can result from thun-
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