Winter weather conditions are quickly coming to the valley.  With a little preplanning, everyone can stay safe this winter.  The first step is awareness of what hazards exist.  You can easily bring 24/7 National Weather Service forecasts, current conditions, and alerts to you and your family with a NOAA Weather / All-Hazards radio.  These safety devices should be in every home, similar to smoke detectors.

NOAA Weather / All-Hazards Radio

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Preparing for Winter Weather

What’s New in Emergency Management?

We have been busy improving our county’s level of preparedness in Emergency Management.  In addition to rewriting the county’s Emergency Operations Plan, a new set of standard operating procedures were written for the Emergency Operations Center.   We are also in the beginning stages of setting up a new county-wide outdoor siren system to warn Teton County citizens of impending disasters.  Although no siren system can alert everyone, the new system will be a marked improvement over our current system.

 

To assist in gathering more accurate weather data, we will soon be installing a county-wide weather station system that will be available to the public and the National Weather Service.  This will aid with more accurate weather forecasts for our area.  Links to the weather data will be on our website once the network is operational; stay tuned for more information.

 

As featured below, Teton County Emergency Management just went through the final stages to making Teton County a StormReady® community.  We are very excited about this and the level of protection that it affords the residents and visitors to Teton County.

 

Lastly, we are in the midst of training a new Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) on the west bank.  Jackson Hole Fire/EMS has been instrumental in the instruction and organization of this class, and we thank them for their initiative in getting this off the ground!

Outlook, Advisory, Watch, Warning...What Does It All Mean?

The National Weather Service releases many different pieces of information, which they refer to as “products”.  The most recognized one is the Local Forecast which is a 7-day forecast for sky condition, temperatures, precipitation, and wind.  Here are some others that you’ll hear on NOAA Weather /All-Hazards Radio and see on the NWS website:

· Hazardous Weather Outlook— issued each morning and updated as needed.  A 7-day product that focuses on events that can have a significant chance of creating a harmful impact on people.

· Nowcasts— short-term forecast for the next 1-3 hours.

· Climate Information— summary of various bits of information regarding Western and Centra