One of the scarieset things that can happen to a person when they are camping is to have severe weather approach. I’ve been lucky and have not had it happen when I was camping but during a road trip to take my son to college orientation in another state we ran into bad weather with tornados and it was really scary. The radio announcer kept announcing the tornado’s path by county but I had no idea what county I was driving in. Plus it was so windy and rainy that visibility was near zero.

We thought about pulling off the road under an overpass but there was no room under the nearest one we found. It was already filled with vehicles. About an hour earlier we had picked up a state highway map at a rest stop but it was in the trunk. So, while my son climbed into the backseat of the car and pulled it down so he could reach into the trunk to find the map, I used an “emergency turnaround” on the highway to go back to a restaurant we had seen a few miles back. When my son found the map and pinpointed our location, we realized we were about 10 miles south of the location of the tornado. We were also nearly to the restaurant which is where we waited out the rest of the storm.

The reason for telling that story is that we had no idea of where we were and felt helpless because we didn’t know if the tornado was 50 miles away or 50 feet away. We should have been aware of the weather we were driving into; in other words we should have been better prepared.

I started thinking about this story and that April is tornado awareness month last night as I sat in my basement waiting out a tornado warning and figured it was a good time to remind all of us to be prepared for the threat of severe weather when camping.

A weather radio is a good investment. Many of us aren’t watching television or listening to a radio when camping which makes a weather radio a good thing to have along so it can alert you if threatening weather is heading your way. The Midland WR-300 Weather Radio costs around $50 and has a 4 1/2 star rating on Amazon.

A few other things to do and to remember:

When checking into a campground ask about their severe weather procedures and where the nearest shelter is (in most campgrounds it’s the bathrooms).

Check the daily forecast to see if severe weather is being predicted (weather forecasts are usually posted at the campground office and often at camp host sites as well).

Make sure the entire family knows what to do in case of severe weather. A great resource to read and review is the National Weather Service’s Preparedness Guide which you can access by clicking here.

30/30 Lightning Safety Rule - go indoors if, after seeing lightning, you cannot count to 30 before hearing thunder. Stay indoors for 30 minutes after hearing the last clap of thunder (if you can hear thunder you are close enough to be struck by lightning.)

If you are caught outdoors when lightning strikes try to find a low spot away from trees, fences and poles but if you are caught in a wooded area take shelter under a short tree.

If you are caught outside when a tornado strikes like flat in the nearest ditch or depression and cover your head with your hands.

If you come across flood waters (swiftly running water just 6 inches deep can knock a person off their feet) turn around and go another way, climbing to higher ground if possible.

And, although tornadoes and lightning seem like they are the deadliest, it’s actually flash flooding that causes the largest number of deaths each year.