National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

On Monday, May 11th, the community of Spring Valley, MN (Fillmore County) was officially recognized as "StormReady" at a brief ceremony at their city council meeting.  Spring Valley has always been a very pro-active community with regards to preparedness, storm spotting, and keeping their citizens alerted when hazardous weather is possible.

The StormReady program is a National Weather Service (NWS) based program that also partners with Emergency Management personnel to establish guidelines and criteria for communities in the planning and preparedness area.  Items like communication, involvement with the NWS, warning methods, weather monitoring, and formal action plans are reviewed when a community applies.  Spring Valley met or exceeded all these criteria and through an active team of Emergency Management directors remains very prepared and ready in case severe weather strikes.

StormReady communities in the La Crosse NWS service area include (as of May 13):

• Eyota, MN
• Dover, MN
• Edgewood, IA
• Viroqua, WI
• Hillsboro, WI
• Spring Valley, MN

For more information on the StormReady program - www.weather.gov/lacrosse/?n=stormready

Here is a group shot of the Spring Valley, MN Emergency Management team receiving their StormReady recognition on May 11, 2009: