{"id":177345,"date":"2024-03-27T03:37:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T08:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=177345"},"modified":"2024-03-27T03:37:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T08:37:19","slug":"severe-weather-expected-into-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/03\/27\/severe-weather-expected-into-june\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather expected into June"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It the prediction is current, it could be a very turbulent spring and early summer in this part of Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a bunch in February that hit Dayton and Columbus and now this latest outbreak (March 14),\u201d McCoy said during Monday\u2019s eclipse planning meeting and again at Monday night\u2019s meeting of Van Wert City Council. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Van Wert County EMA Director Rick McCoy says it could be a stormy spring. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to make sure our community is ready,\u201d he continued. \u201cPeople are good here, they pay attention, they take heed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCoy added that Van Wert County has a title it probably doesn\u2019t want \u2013 the \u201ctornado capital of Ohio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to be very weather oriented in this county because we rate No. 1 in the State of Ohio in the number of tornadoes,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cIn the 34 years I\u2019ve been director we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCoy also outlined the procedure used to sound tornado sirens, five of which are in the Van Wert city limits. All of Van Wert\u2019s tornado sirens are on battery backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are on three minute timers so the sirens will go off and then after three minutes they will shut off,\u201d McCoy stated. \u201cI 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 \u2013 it was still in Indiana, coming this way, so I had to keep reactivating them every three minutes for that event.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d he added. \u201cThe sirens are made for people who are outside to get them in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 18:26:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177353,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177345\/revisions\/177353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}