Severe Weather Week gets us to pay attention to potential hazards

RUSKIN, Fla. - On a day when skies are so stunningly blue and the sun is shining so brightly, it's hard to sound the alarm of severe weather -- as our Governor has asked us to do this week for Severe Weather Awareness .  But according to forecasters at the National Weather Service's Tampa Bay office , that's exactly what we need to do in this -- believe it or not -- one of the most prone to tornado targets in the country.

"But most of our activity is in the summer," said Warning Coordination Meteorologist Dan Noah , who went on to tell me that even though the number is down during the winter, the severity of those storms is greater.  

"The problem with the winter tornadoes is they tend to be violent long track tornadoes," he said.   

"Any time we have a cold front coming through the area and the jet stream dips into Florida our thunderstorms are going to organize in a different way and they're going to produce the tornadoes like we saw in last spring in Tuscaloosa." he added  

Finally, he bottom-lined the local effect that still lingers.  

"We had nine tornadoes criss-cross the Tampa Bay area on March 31 of last year.  This is our season for the violent tornadoes."    

So on Wednesday, February 1 --  all over the state -- at exactly 10:10 am, an alert will go out advising of a tornado. It's just a drill, but as Dan showed me on the long-range forecast, the severe weather scenario isn't so far-fetched:

"We have an upper-level low over the Southwest," he said, pointing to a computer model.  "So our weather looks to become more active around the first to second week of February."

In addition to the drill, between now and then, the weather service is getting ready to overhaul their Doppler radar, and roll out a cell-phone alert system that will augment what we do here at ABC Action News with our interactive apps ...  All in an effort to help keep all of us informed keeping you and your family safe.