Insider Blog: Share your safe place selfie!

Today is safe place selfie day; a day when the weather community encourages folks to share photos of themselves practicing severe weather preparedness in their storm shelter. Safe Place Selfie Day applies to all types of severe weather, but let's talk specifically about tornado safety. 

The biggest part of tornado safety is going to be finding your safe place. If you have a basement, the basement is going to be the safest place for you.

If you don't have a basement, you want to be on the lowest floor of your home or a building, if you have a sturdy structure. You want to be in the interior most room of that first floor. In this case, it's the bathroom in the middle of the home. Put as many walls between you and the outside world, as possible. 

In that safe place you want to keep a few things handy. Number one is probably going to be your cell phone, a first aid kit, and some water in case you need it, but really there are many more great options to keep in your safe place, including a helmet. 

A helmet is something you may not think about, but if you look at this image from Cliff Horton in Georgia on Tuesday; a tornado passing over his home.

You can see all that debris flying around. Those debris particles become flying missiles and can be very dangerous.

Likely the most dangerous part of any tornado is going to be the debris in the air. To avoid that you have to put as many barriers between you and the storm as possible. In some cases that's walls, but it can also manifest itself as protective gear; meaning a helmet, if you've got a baseball helmet, a softball helmet, or any kind of protective padding from any kind of sport, it can really be helpful in times of severe weather.

We want to see your safe place selfie! You can share it with us here, or on our social media.