LINCOLN, Ill. – While the weather may not feel like it in central Illinois this week, the National Weather Service wants people to start thinking about the upcoming cold, winter months.
It’s part of Winter Weather Preparedness Week, with the service providing advice on what to look out for in forecasts, to preparing for the worst winter weather conditions.
Nicole Albano is a meteorologist at the NWS Lincoln Office. She says one thing that is changing for this year is the determination between a winter storm advisory and a winter storm warning.
“It’s usually for snow, sometimes it can be for sleet or freezing rain, it’s really just amount driven,” Albano said. “So the winter storm warning is just a step up from the advisory. So it’s all about criteria.”
Albano says the NWS will also issue advisories relating to wind chill and blowing snow.
The NWS is also providing tips on how to be best prepared, whether at home or on the road, in the worst of winter weather conditions.
Albano says one of the items people should start building before it gets cold is an emergency kit for their vehicles.
“Not a lot of people have those in their vehicles, or they don’t think of it until it’s too late,” Albano said. “So just having a safety supply kit in your vehicle is really essential, because we do spend a lot of time traveling.”
Albano says some of the necessities in those kits should include flashlights, blankets, and warm clothing such as hats and gloves.
She says people should also have their homes winterized in case the power goes out by keeping windows and doors closed with blankets to cover drafts if needed, adding insulation, checking chimneys for drafts, and insulating exposed pipes.
For those that have to be outside in the bitter cold, Albano says the wind chill is something to be aware of. The wind chill is a measure of how cold it is, based on temperature and wind speeds.
Albano says the wind chill can draw out someone’s body heat and drop their skin temperature, which can lead to some negative effects.
“If it gets really extreme, if we have really cold temperatures and really strong winds, frostbite can occur in a matter of just 10 minutes,” Albano said.
Albano says to reduce the effects of a bitter cold wind chill, she suggests people wear gloves, hats, and facemasks.
