Weather in words — and a mission behind it

Turn Around, Don't Drown: A Flash Flood Safety Guide Told by Ear

November 1, 2026

30-second summary

Last night, thunderstorms dropped up to 18 inches of rain on part of Pearl River County, Mississippi, and the National Weather Service declared a Flash Flood Emergency while crews rescued people from high water. Flash floods rise faster than any other flood, often within hours of heavy rain, and most flood deaths happen in cars. This guide covers the three alert words that matter, the real numbers on what moving water can do, and how to judge flood danger by ear and by touch when you cannot see the water coming.

What happened last night

On Halloween night, October 31, 2026, thunderstorms moved over west central Pearl River County, in southern Mississippi, and kept raining on the same ground. The National Weather Service office in New Orleans issued Flash Flood Warnings through the night. Northeast of the community of Crossroads, the flooding turned life-threatening, and the Weather Service declared a Flash Flood Emergency, its most urgent flash flood alert, while crews were out doing high-water rescues. By the morning of November 1, up to 18 inches of rain had been reported in that part of the county.

There was no hurricane and no tornado in that story. Just rain, arriving faster than the ground and the creeks could take it. That is what a flash flood is, and it can happen almost anywhere heavy rain falls.

The three alert words that matter

The National Weather Service uses three levels for flooding, and each one asks something different of you.

A flood watch means be prepared. Conditions look favorable for flooding, so this is the time to think through your plan: where is your higher ground, and how would you get there?

A flash flood warning means take action. Dangerous flash flooding is happening or will happen soon, usually in a smaller, specific area. Move to higher ground. The Weather Service is blunt about the timing: you may only have seconds to move.

A flash flood emergency is the rarest and most serious of the three. The Weather Service reserves it for the exceedingly rare situations when extremely heavy rain is leading to a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage, typically when emergency officials are reporting life-threatening water rises, rescues, and evacuations. Last night in Pearl River County was one of those rare nights.

The power of water, in numbers worth memorizing

People underestimate moving water because the numbers sound small. They are not.

Six inches of fast-moving flood water can knock over an adult. Twelve inches of rushing water can carry away most cars. Two feet of rushing water can carry away SUVs and trucks.

Read those again. Ankle-deep moving water can take your feet out from under you. Water up to a car's door sill can take the whole car.

That is why most flood deaths happen in vehicles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over half of all flood-related drownings occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water, and the next highest share comes from walking into or near flood waters. Almost nobody drowns in a flood they refused to enter.

One more fact, and it is the one that saves the most lives: you cannot judge flood water by looking at it, and you cannot judge it by ear or by touch either. It is impossible to know how deep the water is from the surface, and the road underneath may have collapsed or washed away entirely. A barricade across a road is not a suggestion. The road beyond it may simply not be there anymore.

Judging the danger by ear and by touch

Flood safety advice is usually written for eyes: watch the water, look at the road. Here is the same guidance translated into sound and touch.

Listen for the water itself. Rising water announces itself. A creek that is normally quiet gets loud. Water running where no water usually runs — under doors, across a yard, down a street — has a sound, and if that sound is growing, the water is rising. Heavy rain that keeps drumming on the same ground for hours is itself a warning sign, because flash floods usually arrive within hours of excessive rain.

Use your phone and your radio as your eyes. Turn on Wireless Emergency Alerts, and keep a NOAA Weather Radio where you can hear it. During heavy rain, stay informed by monitoring local radio and television for updates. The alert tone reaching you early is worth more than any sense you have.

At your own door, the rule is simple. If water is coming into your home, or water covers the ground between you and higher ground, do not wade out into it to test the depth. Six inches of moving water is already enough to knock you down, and flood water hides washed-out ground, open drains, and debris. Get to the highest floor of the building you are in, and call for help if you cannot leave safely.

Be extra careful at night. The Weather Service repeats this in nearly every flood message it writes: flood dangers are harder to recognize at night. That is true for everyone, and it is doubly true when the water cannot be seen at all. If heavy rain is falling after dark and a warning names your area, act on the warning, not on what you can sense outside.

If you are in a car

Most flood deaths occur in vehicles, so the car rules deserve their own section.

Never drive through flooded water, and never drive around a barricade blocking a flooded road. If you come to water covering the road, turn around and find another route, or wait. Being late is a small price. The Weather Service puts it plainly: when you drive into flood waters, you are putting your rescuers' lives at risk along with your own.

If your vehicle stalls in rising water, abandon it immediately and seek higher ground. Flood water can rise quickly, cover the vehicle, and sweep it away. The car can be replaced. Walk away from it while walking is still possible, and move uphill, away from creeks, streams, and drainage ditches.

After the water goes down

Stay out of flooded areas even as the water drops. The water may still be rising in places, it can still be moving swiftly, and it hides rocks, debris, and washed-out ground that can hurt you underfoot. Move slowly, test your footing the way you would in any unfamiliar place, and keep children away from flowing water and storm drains.

Then check on your people. Call or text your neighbors, especially anyone who lives alone, and help keep others out of the water. Floods end house by house and street by street, and the checking-on is part of the recovery.

What to do

• Before heavy rain: turn on Wireless Emergency Alerts on your phone, and keep a NOAA Weather Radio where you can hear it day or night.
• Learn the three words: a flood watch means be prepared, a flash flood warning means take action and move to higher ground, and a flash flood emergency means life-threatening flooding is happening now.
• Memorize the numbers: six inches of moving water knocks an adult down, twelve inches carries away most cars, and two feet carries away SUVs and trucks.
• Never walk or drive into flood water, and never go around a barricade. You cannot tell the depth, and the road may be gone underneath.
• If water enters your home or blocks your way out, go to the highest floor and call for help instead of wading into it.
• If your car stalls in rising water, abandon it immediately and get to higher ground.
• Afterward: stay out of flooded areas, move slowly over damaged ground, keep children away from flowing water, and check on your neighbors.

Sources

• National Weather Service, "Turn Around Don't Drown" (more deaths occur due to flooding than from any other thunderstorm-related hazard; over half of flood-related drownings occur in vehicles, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; six inches of fast-moving water can knock over an adult, twelve inches of rushing water can carry away most cars, and two feet can carry away SUVs and trucks)
• National Weather Service, "Be Prepared: Flooding" (a flood watch means be prepared and a flood warning means take action; six inches of fast-moving water can knock over and carry away an adult and twelve inches can carry away a small car; most flooding deaths occur in vehicles; stay informed by monitoring local radio and television)
• National Weather Service (Mobile, Alabama office), "Severe Weather Awareness: Flood Safety" (flash floods occur suddenly, usually within hours of excessive heavy rainfall; a flash flood emergency is issued for exceedingly rare situations with a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage; if your vehicle stalls, abandon it immediately and seek higher ground; be especially cautious at night)
• National Weather Service, New Orleans office: Flash Flood Warnings and Flash Flood Emergency for west central Pearl River County, Mississippi, issued the night of October 31 into November 1, 2026 (up to 18 inches of rain reported; high-water rescues northeast of Crossroads).

Last updated: November 1, 2026

Welcome to Field Notes: Weather in Words

November 1, 2026

30-second summary

Field Notes is the daily journal of this station. This is weather told out loud, in plain words, for people who take the sky by ear. A new post lands here every day around 8 in the morning. Every post can be read to you with the Hear it button. This first post explains why this place exists, what you will find here each day, and where the whole thing is headed.

Why this page exists

I am Javon. In music, people know me as Kashey. Around here, I am the reason this station sounds the way it does.

I am visually impaired. I live with optic nerve atrophy, which means the cable that carries what my eyes see to my brain is damaged and worn thin. The picture never fully arrives. So radar screens and weather graphics do not work for me. I have always taken the sky by ear.

Weather got to me before music did. Growing up in Georgia, I was raised on the morning weather out of Atlanta. Then life brought me to North Carolina, and the voices changed, but the habit did not. When the sky had something to say, I was listening.

Here is the problem I kept running into. Television weather is told in pictures. So is most weather online. If you cannot use those pictures, you are left waiting for somebody to say out loud what everyone else is being shown. Eventually, I built the somebody. That is this station, and Field Notes is where the station writes it all down, in words, every single day.

Who this is for

Field Notes is built first for blind and low-vision listeners, and for anybody who navigates the world by sound.

It is also for everyone else whose eyes are busy. Drivers. People at work. Parents with their hands full. If you need the weather in your ears instead of on a screen, you are in the right place.

Nothing here depends on you seeing anything. No post will ever ask you to study a picture to understand the forecast. If a fact matters, it is written out in words, and the Hear it button will read the whole post to you start to finish.

What lands here every day

Every morning around 8, you get The Day Ahead in Words. That is the flagship post: the national weather picture for the day, the active watches and warnings spoken plain, and what it all means if you live where it is happening.

Around that flagship, the features rotate. Learn the Sky explains one piece of weather science in plain language, checked by our atmospheric scientist. Safety in 60 Seconds gives you one short, practical thing to do before, during, or after bad weather. This Day in Weather History looks back at a storm from the record books. Listener Question of the Day answers something one of you asked. Somewhere in the World takes the forecast somewhere far from home. And on Fridays, The Weekend in Words lays out the two days ahead.

When real weather breaks, the schedule steps aside. A serious storm always outranks a regular feature, and the posts will follow the storm for as long as it lasts.

Where this is headed

Two things have to be true about this place at the same time. It should look like money: clean, professional, and worth your trust. And it should save lives: clear warnings, in words, reaching people who get left out of picture-based weather.

The long game is bigger than a website. The goal is to grow this into something that shows up in person. Traveling to the places storms hit. Feeding people. Helping them get back on their feet. That is the model set by relief work like Ryan Hall's Y'all Squad, and it is the direction this station is walking, one morning post at a time.

If a post here ever helps you through a storm, that is the whole point.

What to do

• Come back around 8 each morning for The Day Ahead in Words.
• Use the Hear it button on any post and let it read to you.
• If you have a weather question, send it in. It might become the Listener Question of the Day.
• If you live through a storm and want to tell the story, send that too. Storm stories from listeners belong here.

Sources

Field Notes is written from official information published by the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center, and every post lists its own sources at the bottom, just like this one.

• National Weather Service, "Forecasts and Service" (what the National Weather Service does)
• National Hurricane Center, "Active Tropical Cyclones" (text)

Last updated: November 1, 2026

When a Tornado Warning Names Your County: A Blind Listener's Safety Guide

November 1, 2026

30-second summary

A tornado warning means a tornado has been spotted or shown on radar, and it is time to act, not to wait and see. This guide walks through the whole thing by ear: how to make sure the warning reaches you, how to choose and learn your safest room in calm weather, what to do in the minutes after a warning names your county, and how to move carefully once the storm has passed. It is built on National Weather Service tornado safety guidance, adapted for people who navigate by sound and touch.

First, make sure the warning can reach you

A warning only protects you if it wakes you up and gets your attention. Set up more than one way to hear it, and set them up before storm season, not during a storm.

Your phone is the first layer. A National Weather Service tornado warning automatically triggers a Wireless Emergency Alert on cell phones in the warned area. Keep those alerts turned on, and keep your phone where you can hear it at night.

The second layer is a NOAA Weather Radio. It sits in your home and sounds an alert tone when warnings are issued for your county, day or night. It works when the power and the internet do not.

A third layer can be a trusted weather app that speaks its alerts out loud. Whichever layers you choose, test the volume on a quiet day. An alert you sleep through is not an alert.

Know the two key words. A tornado watch means be prepared: conditions could produce tornadoes. A tornado warning means take action: a tornado is happening or about to happen. When you hear the word warning with your county's name, the planning is over and the moving starts.

Choose your safest room now, and learn it by touch

The National Weather Service guidance is simple. The safest places are a storm shelter or a basement. If you do not have those, go to a small interior room with no windows, on the lowest floor of your home: a closet, a bathroom, or an interior hallway. The rule is to put as many walls as you can between you and the outside.

Pick that room on a calm day, and learn it the way you learn everything: by touch and by steps. Walk the route from your bedroom and count the steps. Walk it from the kitchen and count again. Keep the path clear of anything you could trip over, because on the night you need it, you may be moving fast, in the dark, with a storm making noise outside.

If you live in a mobile home, the plan is different, and it has to be made early. Mobile homes are not safe in a tornado, even tied down. Your safe place is a sturdy building or a storm shelter nearby, and you need to know how you will get there before the watch is even issued.

Keep a small kit in or beside your safe room: sturdy shoes, your phone and its charger, your cane, your medications, and a battery radio if you have one. Add a helmet if you have one, or thick blankets or a mattress you can pull over yourself. Head injuries are the leading cause of death in tornadoes, so covering your head and body matters as much as the room itself.

When the warning names your county

Go. Do not wait to hear the storm for yourself, and do not spend a single second opening windows. That old idea is a myth, and it wastes the minutes you need.

Get to your safe room by your counted route. If you can, get under something sturdy, like a heavy table. Cover your head and body with blankets, a mattress, or a helmet. Stay away from windows.

Stay in the room until the warning expires or you are told the danger has passed. Tornado warnings are usually issued for part of a county at a time, and they often run less than an hour. A quiet minute outside does not mean the storm is finished, because more than one tornado can come from the same storm.

After the storm

Listen first. Power lines on the ground can hum or crackle, and debris makes the familiar sound of your own yard wrong. Move slowly and test each step before you trust it, the way you would cross an unfamiliar room. Broken glass, nails, and sharp wreckage are the everyday dangers after a tornado, and sturdy shoes earn their keep here.

Treat every downed wire as live, and keep well clear of it. Stay out of damaged buildings. If you smell gas or hear hissing, get out and call for help from a safe distance.

Then check on your people. Call or text your neighbors, especially anyone who lives alone. And keep one ear on your radio or phone afterward, because the same storm system can produce new warnings even after the first one passes.

What to do

• Before storm season: turn on Wireless Emergency Alerts, set up a NOAA Weather Radio, and test that you can hear both.
• On a calm day: choose your safest room, count your steps to it from the rooms you use most, and keep the route clear.
• Stock the room: sturdy shoes, phone and charger, cane, medications, and a helmet or heavy blankets.
• In a mobile home: decide now which sturdy building or shelter you will go to, and how.
• When a warning names your county: go to the room immediately, get low, cover your head and body, and stay until the warning expires.
• Afterward: move slowly, test your steps, treat every downed wire as live, and check on your neighbors.

Sources

• National Weather Service, "Be Prepared: Tornadoes" (watch versus warning, safe places, mobile home guidance)
• National Weather Service (Mobile, Alabama office), "Severe Weather Awareness: Tornado Safety" (safety rules for homes, vehicles, and mobile homes)
• National Weather Service (Louisville, Kentucky office), "Safety Rules for Tornadoes"
• National Weather Service (Pueblo, Colorado office), "Watches and Warnings" (Wireless Emergency Alert messages are sent for Tornado Warnings; warnings are also carried on NOAA Weather Radio)

Last updated: November 1, 2026

A Hurricane's Category Isn't the Whole Storm

November 1, 2026

30-second summary

A hurricane's category measures one thing only: wind. The National Hurricane Center says so in plain language. The scale says nothing about storm surge or rain flooding, and water is what kills most people in these storms. This week proved the point without a hurricane at all: thunderstorms parked over Pearl River County, Mississippi, dropped up to 18 inches of rain, and crews spent Halloween night rescuing people from high water. No category. Just water.

What the number actually measures

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale runs from Category 1 to Category 5, and it is based only on a hurricane's maximum sustained wind speed. Here is the whole scale, in words.

A Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 74 to 95 miles per hour. Category 2 runs from 96 to 110. Category 3 runs from 111 to 129. Category 4 runs from 130 to 156. Category 5 is 157 miles per hour and above. Hurricanes at Category 3 and higher are called major hurricanes.

That is all the number knows. The National Hurricane Center states it directly: the scale does not take into account other potentially deadly hazards such as storm surge, rainfall flooding, and tornadoes. Earlier versions of the scale tried to fold in water. Forecasters took the water back out, because surge and rain depend on the coastline, the ground, and the storm's size and speed, and none of that fits inside a wind number.

The water is the killer

Storm surge is the sea pushed ashore by a storm's winds, arriving on top of the normal tide. Rain flooding is the fresh water that falls inland, filling creeks, rivers, and streets far from any coast. Between the two of them, water is the deadliest part of a tropical storm or hurricane.

Research by Edward Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center, covering United States deaths from Atlantic tropical cyclones from 1963 to 2012, found that nearly 9 out of every 10 deaths were caused by water. About half of all deaths came from storm surge. About a quarter came from rain-driven freshwater flooding. Wind, the only thing the category measures, accounted for fewer than 1 in 10.

History agrees. Hurricane Harvey struck Texas in 2017 as a Category 4, near the top of the scale. Its worst harm did not come from that wind. It came after the storm weakened and stalled, when days of extreme rain flooded a huge area. The category had dropped. The danger had not.

So when you hear that a storm is "only" a Category 1, or "only" a tropical storm, understand what that sentence leaves out. A slow, wet, low-category storm can flood a town that a faster, stronger storm would have spared.

This week's proof, and there was no hurricane at all

On Halloween night, October 31, 2026, thunderstorms moved over west central Pearl River County, in southern Mississippi, and kept raining on the same ground. There was no hurricane. There was no tropical storm. There was no category of any kind, because categories are only for hurricanes, and this was simply rain.

The National Weather Service office in New Orleans issued Flash Flood Warnings through the night. Northeast of the community of Crossroads, the flooding turned life-threatening, and the Weather Service declared a Flash Flood Emergency, its most urgent flash flood alert, while crews were out doing high-water rescues. By the morning of November 1, up to 18 inches of rain had been reported in that part of the county.

Eighteen inches of rain does not need a category to flood homes, cover roads, and put rescuers in boats. That is the lesson of this post, delivered by an ordinary storm system on an ordinary weekend: respect the water first, and treat the category as one fact among several, never the headline.

What to do

• When a storm is coming your way, ask three separate questions: How strong is the wind? How high is the surge? How much rain, and how fast? A forecast that only gives you the category has answered just one of them.
• Know whether your home sits in a storm surge evacuation zone. Your county emergency management office can tell you your zone, and local officials will name the zones when evacuation orders are given. Learn yours on a quiet day, not during a storm.
• Never drive or walk through flooded roads. Moving floodwater is stronger than it sounds, and it does not take deep water to sweep away a person or a car. The National Weather Service puts it in four words: Turn Around, Don't Drown.
• Slow storms deserve extra respect. A storm that crawls or stalls can drop enormous rain totals far inland, long after its winds have weakened and its category has fallen.
• Keep listening after landfall. Rivers often crest a day or more after the rain ends, so flooding can peak when the sky has already cleared.

Sources

• National Hurricane Center, "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale" (the scale is based only on maximum sustained wind and does not account for storm surge, rainfall flooding, or tornadoes)
• National Hurricane Center, "The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale" (scale description, updated May 2021)
• Edward N. Rappaport, National Hurricane Center, study of fatalities in the United States from Atlantic tropical cyclones, 1963 to 2012 (water caused nearly 90 percent of deaths; storm surge about half; rainfall flooding about a quarter; wind under 10 percent).
• National Weather Service, New Orleans office: Flash Flood Warnings and Flash Flood Emergency for west central Pearl River County, Mississippi, issued the night of October 31 into November 1, 2026 (up to 18 inches of rain reported; high-water rescues northeast of Crossroads).

Last updated: November 1, 2026