Jackson County officials say new radar allows more time to prepare when storms turn dangerous

Jackson County officials say new radar allows more time to prepare when storms turn dangerous

For the past few weeks now, we've been showing you all the ways the waay 31 stormtracker early warning radar network will be tracking weather all across north alabama.

Waay31s sierra phillips went to jackson county where ema and the sheriff's office explained how our early warning radar network will help them during severe weather.

May- "looking back probably the worst day i'd ever worked.

That day."

Captain marty may remembers responding to the tornado outbreak on april 27th, 2011.

It killed eight people in jackson county.

May- "that tornado just stayed on a freight train all the way through rosalie and then higdon, then over into dekalb county into georgia."

Current jackson county emergency management director paul smith was working as a deputy at the time.

Smith- "unfortunately when you see the kind of damage that we saw on april 27th you know that someone was injured, or worse killed."

Standup- here in jackson county, the national weather service's radar in hytop takes anywhere from 4 to 6 minutes for every scan.

Our early warning radar network here at guntersville state park takes just 1 minute to scan giving you more time to prepare.

Smith- "having a better look at these storms is exciting."

Smith said it's especially important in planning when to go to a safe place.

Smith- "if you can get that word out as quickly as possible, with as much lead time as you can then that forms people opinions to 'hey i need to take this more seriously than i have been" reporting in sand mountain, sierra phillips waay31