CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Do you know where you would go if life-threatening weather was approaching your home? What about your friends and family?
With severe weather moving through the Carolinas Tuesday, it's good to keep these safe places in mind.
In the Carolinas, when we discuss your safe place, the WCNC Charlotte Weather Team is often referring to where you would go during a severe thunderstorm warning or a tornado warning. In this scenario, a safe place would be an interior room on the lowest level of your home. This may be a closet, a bathroom, or under a staircase in an apartment building.
Your safe place may not even be in your home. Consider where you would go if you were out and about, whether it’s the grocery store, the office, school, or even the gym.
Other weather hazards we experience in the Charlotte area are flash floods, extreme heat, and lightning. For flooding, you would want to get to higher ground and avoid flooded roadways. For extreme heat, find shade, drink plenty of water, or head indoors to the A/C. And when thunder roads, move indoors. Where there’s thunder, there’s lightning, and frequent strikes can occur even during non-severe thunderstorms.
The National Weather Service created the #SafePlaceSelfie initiative to help better protect you and your family. The goal is to work in conjunction with local media outlets, emergency management, and other organizations to make sure you know where to go during hazardous weather.
Now that you're thinking of where your safe place is, this begs the question: what do you need in your safe place?
- A pillow or helmet to protect your head from debris
- A way to get alerts – the WCNC Charlotte app is a great tool for this
- NOAA weather radio
- Phone charger
- Snacks
- Water
- Any other essentials, like medication
For the latest weather alerts, download the WCNC Charlotte mobile app and enable push notifications.
And don’t forget your pets -- wherever your safe place is, they should be there too.
Contact Brittany Van Voorhees at bvanvoorhe@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
WCNC Charlotte’s Weather IQ YouTube channel gives detailed explainers from the WCNC Charlotte meteorologists to help you learn and understand weather, climate and science. Watch previous stories where you can raise your Weather IQ in the YouTube playlist below and subscribe to get updated when new videos are uploaded.