Topics ranging from wall clouds to the dangers of lightning and wind shear were covered for an audience of about 160 people during the annual tornado spotter storm session Monday evening in Junction City.

Meteorologist Jennifer Bowen told the audience a wall cloud should be used as a landmark when looking for a tornado. Look for rotation in that cloud.

When it comes to a supercell visualization you want to be at least two to three miles away from it.

There were 126 tornadoes in Kansas in 2015, with the majority in the western part of the state. That was well above the normal average of 80. Bowen feels an active year is possible again in 2016. “We’ve had multiple systems coming through.” And she added, “We’ve got off and on thunderstorms throughout the week, so I would tell people to already start preparing, get their plan ready, get the disaster kit together in their shelter and be ready it could be an active season.”

Bowen gave the audience advice. Mobile home residents should not remain there during tornadoes, stay indoors when it hails, and she pointed flooding is the leading thunderstorm killer.

Geary County Emergency Management sponsors the annual weather session at the 4-H / Senior Center.