Severe weather expected into June

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

It the prediction is current, it could be a very turbulent spring and early summer in this part of Ohio.

According to Van Wert County EMA Director Rick McCoy, the National Weather Service is extremely concerned there could be a super outbreak of tornadoes across the region between now and June.

“We had a bunch in February that hit Dayton and Columbus and now this latest outbreak (March 14),” McCoy said during Monday’s eclipse planning meeting and again at Monday night’s meeting of Van Wert City Council. “A very strong El Nino that gave us a mild winter is going to die off here soon. La Nina will develop and when that happens, that means lots of severe storms and many tornadoes.”

“We want to make sure our community is ready,” he continued. “People are good here, they pay attention, they take heed.”

McCoy added that Van Wert County has a title it probably doesn’t want – the “tornado capital of Ohio.”

“We need to be very weather oriented in this county because we rate No. 1 in the State of Ohio in the number of tornadoes,” McCoy said. “In the 34 years I’ve been director we’ve had 34 tornadoes, so we average about one per year. No other county in our state has that many so this is mega-capital of tornadoes.”

McCoy also outlined the procedure used to sound tornado sirens, five of which are in the Van Wert city limits. All of Van Wert’s tornado sirens are on battery backup.

“They are on three minute timers so the sirens will go off and then after three minutes they will shut off,” McCoy stated. “I will reactivate them if the tornado is still coming. If you remember in 2002 when the tornado hit, I activated tornadoes for 26 minutes before it got to the city – it was still in Indiana, coming this way, so I had to keep reactivating them every three minutes for that event.”

“I want the public to understand that the sirens are not for people in their businesses or in their homes, even though we would like it to be,” he added. “The sirens are made for people who are outside to get them in.”

Along with the five tornado sirens in Van Wert, Willshire, Wren, Dixon, Convoy, Scott, Ohio City, Middle Point, Venedocia, Elgin each have one tornado siren, along with one at Huggy Bear Campground. There are four tornado sirens in Delphos.

McCoy also urged city and county residents to sign up for Nixle alerts for cell phone text messages about impending severe weather. Sign-up for Nixle alerts can be found here.