***Please see the below information received from the National Weather Service and Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers.
The National Weather Service is cancelling the tornado drill watch/warnings for Minnesota for Thursday, April 11. The NWS will not be issuing any test tornado watches/warnings for anywhere in Minnesota on Thursday, April 11. The cancellation is due to the very strong snow storm set to arrive later Wednesday. Blizzard warnings are already in effect for part of the state. It is also cancelled for Friday, April 12, as some areas of Minnesota will still be experiencing heavy snow and/or strong wind. We will *not* be issuing any test tornado watches/warnings for Minnesota on Friday. This decision has been made through many discussions with many of our public safety partners. We wish this decision didn’t have to be made, but feel it is especially wise based on the expectations and timing of the incoming storm.
We will continue to send some information via social media and our web page for the remainder of this week about severe weather safety, but the drill itself is cancelled. Some have proposed rescheduling the drill in late April or May; we will discuss that with our public safety partners. If local governments, businesses, schools, etc wish to continue with their own drill on Thursday, April 11, that is a local decision.
