Golden Triangle emergency officials are preparing for the threat of severe weather that could include tornadoes today.
National Weather Service officials said Tuesday that the strong storms could strike this evening are expected to stay north of the Highway 82 corridor, which runs through the heart of the Golden Triangle.
Lowndes County Emergency Management Director Cindy Lawrence on Tuesday met with law enforcement, city and count officials, utility providers and others at the courthouse in downtown Columbus to get a briefing from WCBI meteorologist Isaac Williams.
“It’s not going to be a squall line, where we will be able to identify a specific time window,” Williams said. “If tornadoes form, they’ll be in cells, which can form quickly and follow no pattern. We could well be under tornado warnings over a 12-hour period.”
Williams said that based on the information he had at the time of the meeting, the most likely time for tornadoes will come after 3 p.m. today.
Compounding the situation is a faulty National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radio transmitter in Ackerman.
In an email to the Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency, a NOAA officials said the signal is “intermittent and unreliable.”
NOAA suggested following KJY83 (162.5 MHz) and KTUT (162.450 MHz), which covers parts of Attala, Clay and Lowndes counties. Television, Internet and radio sources should also be monitored, and OCEMA Director Shank Phelps said residents should also follow social media and CodeRED alerts.
The severity of today’s weather situation was hard to gauge Tuesday during a conference call Oktibbeha County officials had with NWS Jackson officials.
The storm is a “spring-like system, which is unusual for the year,” NWS Jackson meteorologist Eric Carpenter said, and the conditions expected — pop-up storm cells — “resemble the Caledonia tornado event” that occurred about seven years ago.
The threat of severe weather will likely extend from Louisiana through Mississippi and Alabama and into Georgia, according to the NWS.
Officials at Tuesday’s meeting in Columbus said crews and staffs are on standby, including the emergency shelter at Southside Baptist Church on Yorkville Road and Highway 69.
Williams said Wednesday’s threat of severe weather will be followed by rain throughout the weekend, with another threat of severe weather on Monday.
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