Winter weather preparedness week: Winter Weather Terminology

It's day one of Winter Weather Preparedness Week for Missouri. The topic to start out the week is winter weather terminology. Knowing the difference between a winter storm watch, advisory, and warning is very important for the community to understand. Each terms have different time periods and meanings which can lead to some confusion putting drivers in dangerous situations.

Just like severe watches and warnings for storms, a watch means all the necessary ingredients for a dangerous winter storm are possible. This is a heads up before an event to come. A warning means the dangerous winter weather storm is occurring take all necessary steps to remain safe now. An advisory is issued within the same period as a warning but is not as severe as a warning.