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NOUS43 KIND 051827
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Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Indianapolis IN
127 PM EST Wed Feb 5 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 5th, 2025

Indiana Severe Weather Preparedness Week is planned for March 9th
through March 15th, 2025

Indianapolis, IN - Indiana Severe Weather Preparedness week is
planned for March 9th through March 15th, 2025. A statewide live
test tornado drill will be held on Tuesday March 11th around 1015 am
EDT to test emergency communications across Indiana.

The National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) in
Chicago, IL (LOT); Indianapolis, IN (IND); Louisville, KY (LMK);
Northern Indiana (IWX) and Paducah, KY (PAH); the Indiana Department
of Homeland Security (IDHS); and the Indiana Broadcasters
Association (IBA) plan to conduct a live code Tornado Warning test
throughout most of the state of Indiana. WFO Wilmington, OH (ILN),
serving extreme southeast Indiana, will issue a required Weekly Test
(RWT) message over NOAA Weather Radio and a Special Weather
Statement (SPS) with tornado preparedness information instead of the
test tornado warning. This is due to an agreement with the Ohio
Broadcasters Association and is the same procedure used in previous
years.

The live code test supports the Indiana Statewide Tornado Drill and
maximizes participation in the drill by local emergency management
agencies and broadcasters, while testing emergency broadcast systems.
A live code test means a Tornado Warning test message (TOR) will be
disseminated via audio and Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME)
tones over NWR transmitters serving Indiana and will activate the
Emergency Alert System (EAS).

The audio message will use the phrase Tornado Warning but will
state that the message is only a test. The World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) text messages will use a Valid Time Event Code
(VTEC) Product Class Code of /T/ for Test and the word Test will be
repeated several times in the body of the message. The test will not
be sent to cellphones via the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system,
although in an actual Tornado Warning, this system would be used.

In the event of significant weather hazards in Indiana on the
morning of March 11th, the test will be postponed to Wednesday,
March 12th at 10:15 AM EDT and will be preceded by another Public
Information Statement announcing the change. If significant weather
hazards cause the backup date test to be canceled, the test drill
will be canceled altogether and not rescheduled.

For more information, please contact: Sam Lashley Warning
Coordination Meteorologist NWS Indianapolis, IN Sam.Lashley@noaa.gov
317-856-0361


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Lashley


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