NWS test tornado drill Wednesday

The National Weather Service will be conducting its annual test tornado drill Wednesday, March 27.

The National Weather Service will use the actual TOR EAS code as if it was a real tornado warning. The FCC has granted Nebraska and Iowa a waiver to use the live TOR codes. The backup days are Thursday, March 28 or Friday, March 29, if we have severe weather in the area. 

Here is the timeline for the Wednesday, March 27 drill:

 10 a.m - The Storm Prediction Center issues a test tornado watch for all counties in Iowa and Nebraska.  The test message will be tone alerted and sent through the Emergency Alert System using the TOA code.  The watch will be valid for one hour.

  10:15 a.m. - Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) that serve Nebraska and Iowa issue TEST tornado warnings for their Nebraska Counties and Iowa Counties valid for 20 minutes. This is the time that counties may be sounding sirens. This will be sent using the TOR EAS code.  There will be test wording throughout the text of the warning. 

10:35 a.m. - WFOs across Nebraska and Iowa issue a severe weather statement cancelling their tornado warning.

   11 a.m. - The test tornado watch expires for all of Nebraska and Iowa.

Notice, this test will not be activating the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messaging system on cell phones.