Emergency Officials Promote Severe Weather Awareness Week

UNDATED -- It's Severe Weather Awareness Week, meaning it's time to refresh your memory on some of the hazards that come with summer weather in Minnesota.

Severe weather can come in many different forms so emergency management and weather officials are pointing to a different topic every day this week.

Today officials want you to understand alerts and warnings. Learn the definitions of the various alerts and warnings and create a plan on how to act in case one is issued.

Lightening and hail are tomorrow's topics with floods the topic of interest on Wednesday.

Thursday, the National Weather Service will issue a simulated tornado warning and tornado sirens will be tested at 1:45 p.m. and again at 6:55 p.m.

Then on Friday, a reminder about extreme heat. Heat related illnesses accounted for 35 deaths in Minnesota over the last decade.