Posted Wednesday, May 9, 2012 --- 12:20 p.m.

From the National Weather Service:

At 2:00 P.M. CDT, Thursday, May 10, 2012, two StormReady® Supporter informational signs will be presented to NBC15-WMTV Madison personnel in a brief recognition ceremony in their studio.

NBC15-WMTV Madison earned their StormReady® Supporter designation on March 28, 2012. This designation is valid as long as they meet the StormReady® Supporter guidelines. In doing so, they become the 7th StormReady® Supporter in Wisconsin, and the first commercial TV station.

StormReady® is a national community preparedness program that uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather. In general, a community or entity must possess a solid communication network, and provide verification of its multi-hazard emergency operations plan. Specifically, in order to become StormReady® , the community or entity must:
• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;
• Have multiple methods to receive and disseminate severe weather warnings, and information for their community;
• Have various methods to monitor weather conditions locally;
• Promote the importance of public readiness;
• Develop a formal hazardous weather action plan, including severe weather spotter training and drills.

Communities in Wisconsin that have been designated StormReady® include:
1) Cities of…Lake Mills, Whitewater, Cedarburg, Waupaca, Belleville, Viroqua, Dousman, and Hillsboro,
2) Counties of…Lincoln, Oneida, and Racine,
3) Entities/Businesses of…Camp Freeland Leslie BSA, Oxford; Experimental Aircraft Association, Oshkosh; Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes, Green Bay; Green Bay Packers; Hortonville High School, Hortonville; Virtual Care Provider, Milwaukee; Weather Central Inc./MyWeather, LLC, Madison; and WMTV- NBC15, Madison.

Several other Wisconsin cities and/or counties and/or entities are currently working toward their StormReady® designation.
Nationally, as of May 9, 2012, there were there were 1913 StormReady® Sites in 50 states, Puerto Rico & Guam:
932 Counties
760 Communities
111 Universities
11 Indian Nations
47 Commercial
31 Military
19 Government
107 TsunamiReady® Sites in 10 states, Puerto Rico and Guam
216 StormReady® Supporters

Here is a link that shows a national map of these StormReady® sites (it does not include StormReady Supporters sites): http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/communities.htm. Click on Wisconsin to obtain more Wisconsin details.