Have you ever heard of a PDS or Particularly Dangerous Situation?  Most families have not.  A PDS signals to the public, the media and emergency managers that the forthcoming event is not routine severe weather, but a high-end, life-threatening risk with higher confidence of significant damage.  These situations are warnings made to ‘grab your family’s attention’. 

A PDS is issued by local National Weather Service offices.  When it is issued your family needs to know if a weather watch on steroids is in the vicinity.  A lot of families have never heard of a PDS because they are fairly uncommon, occurring less than 3% or 24 situations per year in the years 1996-2005.  PDS situations can be issued as a PDS watch or a PDS warning and like tornado watches and warning alerts the difference is that the situation is either ripe or apparent to your location.

If a PDS watch is issued where you live, the immediate thing for a family to do it to “get serious” and start preparing for potential dangers to your home and family.  The first steps you should take are to check/review your safety plans and implement those plans immediately.  Secondly, stay tuned to local news or emergency updates to monitor if the situation is becoming any worse. 

Once a PDS warning for your location has been verified, your family should take immediate action. For safety reasons, your family should take immediate action by sheltering in your basement or an interior room away from windows.  Then cover up your head and body with heavy blankets, mattresses, or a bike helmet(s).  If there is time and local officials recommend it, you should evacuate.  Stay away from windows and doors.

If you do live in a mobile home, it is recommended that you leave immediately to a safer location such as a local pre-determined local emergency safety center.  If you must drive (it is usually recommended) to try to avoid roads.  Rather seek a solid structure, stay low with your seat belt buckled and your head protected below car window level.

What kind of situations are PDS watches and warning issued for? 

• If a tornado watch becomes a PDS watch or warning, that tornado has the potential for a long-track, lengthy duration tornado to occur.
• If a severe thunderstorm watch becomes a PDS watch or warning, that storm indicates the potential for a storm with massive destructive winds.
• If a red-flag warning is issued due to a wildfire in the vicinity, then high winds, very dry air, and extreme wildfire danger means your family needs to prepare for a potential evacuation now.
• There are other types of weather watches where a PDS warning can be applied.  Winter storm watches, high-wind alerts, hurricane watches, and wildfire weather watches are all signs that your family should consider activating one or both of your preparedness plans (shelter-in-place or evacuation plans). 

Although PDS watches and warnings are rare, they are often very destructive.  They can result in loss of life, loss of home, loss of assets and much more.  They cannot and should not ever be ignored if they are issued where you live.  The safety and preparation for one of these rare events is dependent on your family having one or both of those essential preparedness plans.  Every family should have a shelter-in-place emergency plan.  That plan is the easiest and most inexpensive plan to prepare for.  You can learn more about the shelter-in-place plan on our website here.  The other essential preparedness plan is the evacuation plan, and you can learn more about creating your family’s personal evacuation plan on our website here.

Whether or not you have ever heard of a particularly dangerous situation watch or warning, your family should prepare for these rare incidents plus the other 50 different disaster types listed on our website.  Taking action now is a huge safety step for your family for not only rare weather situations but also for common weather situations that can prevent destruction to you, your family, your assets no matter where you live.  Be safe, be prepared – act now before it is too late.