LET’S TALK ABOUT SEVERE WEATHER ANXIETY… I have been reminded so many times over the last few years that a ton of people have anxiety around the topic of severe weather, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Severe weather is beyond our control. It is incredibly important to have a reliable, “no hype” source for weather information, particularly during times of severe weather, but even ahead of the many severe weather events our local area experiences regularly. I am honored to be your hometown meteorologist, on good weather days, and more importantly, on bad weather days. I recently was a featured caller on The Dr. John Delony Show, a nationally-syndicated podcast and radio program that focuses on mental health, anxiety, and life’s challenges. My goal in speaking with Dr. John was to talk with a mental health professional about how I (and how we, as a weather enterprise) can best help YOU during times of severe weather, specifically from a point of view relating to anxiety.
My call starts at the 13:45 mark (13 minutes, 45 seconds in) in the show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO8_YaYjoUk&t=825s
ANXIETY IS REAL AND YOU ARE NOT ALONE… I am thankful we are living in an era when the long-held, unfounded stigmas surrounding anxiety and mental health issues are finally beginning to fade. We clearly have a long way to go to make sure mental health is a priority, but I am thankful for the progress that has been made. You should know that I get a *TON* of questions from people, both men and women, regularly surrounding severe weather events. A large percentage of these people are candid when seeking information, clearly articulating their fear and anxiety concerning severe weather. I say that to say: You’re not alone if you have anxiety around severe weather issues. You’re not alone, you’re not crazy, you’re experiencing (as Dr. John says in our call) “your body’s alarm system” when something isn’t right. We cannot control the weather, and we certainly can’t control severe weather systems. That is why it is important to control what we can control: Our preparation and our responses to severe storms.
Again, it is my honor to be your local meteorologist. No fear, no hype, no clickbait fake headlines to try to push up our ratings. I would be honored for you to check out our daily weather video (posted each weekday morning by 7:15AM), watch our coverage during tornado warnings (redzoneweather.com/coverage outlines our coverage commitment), and use our free RedZone Weather app (redzoneweather.com/app is the link for the free download).
If you’re struggling with severe weather anxiety, listen to our call (YouTube link above). I would greatly appreciate it if you would pass this post along to people you know that have this all too common anxiety. Hopefully, we can help a few folks out!
My next regularly scheduled forecast video will be posted by 7:15AM on Facebook and in the RedZone Weather app.
Have a nice evening!