Items that are displayed on the weather scroller and posted to the CIFN_Weather Yahoo group

IL Counties:
(Lincoln NWS office County Warning Area)
Cass, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Clay, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fulton, Jasper, Knox, Lawrence, Logan, McLean, Macon, Marshall, Mason, Menard, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Piatt, Richland, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Tazewell, Vermilion, Woodford

(St. Louis NWS office County Warning Area)
Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Clinton, Fayette, Greene, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Montgomery, Pike, Randolph, St. Clair, Washington

(Local products)
  • Tornado Warning
  • Severe Thunderstorm Warning
  • Severe Weather Statement (these are updates on current warnings such as new locations of storms, cancellations or expirations, and often have very valuable information about ongoing situations.)
  • Flash Flood Warning
  • Flash Flood Statement (same notes as Severe Weather Statement listed above)
  • Civil Emergency Message (never seen one issued by either Lincoln or St. Louis but they are there. They can be used for chemical spills/leaks, evacuations, etc. and usually are accompanied by a local Emergency Alert System activation)
  • Winter Weather Warnings (this is a broad category and includes basically every winter weather related product out there. I have no way to pick and choose on this one currently.)

    (Special Local products *Yahoo group only*)
  • Child Abduction Emergency (Amber Alerts from ISP.)
  • Administrative Message-Lincoln NWS (Usually used to cancel an active Amber Alert, but occasionally is a test message or something else)

    (National/Regional products *Yahoo group only*)
  • Public Watch Box ("Official" SPC weather watches and cancellations that include IL) (often referred to in discussions as WW for Weather Watch)
  • Preliminary Watch Box ("Preliminary" heads up from the SPC of a pending watch that may include IL) These usually will have aviation coordinates and a general idea of what areas a pending watch will cover.
  • Mesoscale Discussion (that includes IL) (these are areas that the SPC is monitoring for possible severe weather activity. these are often somewhat hard to decipher, but if you see one then you know that something is of concern to them in IL and it is more of a heads up that a watch may be forthcoming in the next hour or two, or something else significant has caught their attention.
  • Public Severe Weather Outlook (that includes IL) these are special outlooks issued by the SPC when a significant and widespread severe weather or tornado outbreak is forecast. They are issued only a couple of dozen times a year usually and if IL is in the product header it should send them out.

    CIFN's weather page is also accessible from the main cifn.org website, and provides links to everything, including a map of current watches and warnings in Illinois.

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