Get winter-ready with our free storm planner.
Eight printable pages for your household: a before-winter checklist, what to do when a Winter Storm Watch or Warning comes out, safe backup heat, a pantry and water list, a car kit, a storm log, and cut-out cards with the numbers to call. Free. Print as many as you like.
Storm mode Checking the National Weather Service for winter alerts in La Porte County…
Fill it in once. Keep it by the door all winter.
Tap a page to open it in the PDF. Each one has room to write your own details: your shelter spot, who to call, what’s in the pantry and the car.
1. Cover: your household and winter season
2. Before-winter home checklist: 13 checks, from the furnace to the pets
3. Winter Storm Watch vs. Warning: what to do for each
4. Safe backup heat and carbon monoxide
5. Pantry and water: what you have and what you need
6. Winter car kit checklist
7. Storm log: power, conditions, what you did
8. Cut-out cards: one for the fridge, four for cars and wallets, with a code to scan for live alerts
Local numbers checked in October 2026: NIPSCO outages and downed lines 1-800-464-7726, NIPSCO gas leaks 1-800-634-3524, La Porte County Emergency Management 219-362-7210, and 211. Official watches and warnings come from the National Weather Service; this planner is ours. Planificador en español (PDF)
20 steps to a Winter Ready household.
Check them off as you go. Your checks stay on this phone or computer; nothing is sent to us. Finish all 20 and print a Winter Ready Household certificate for the fridge. Kids love handing these out.
0 of 20 done
This certifies that
This household
finished all 20 steps of the La Porte County Winter Storm Prep checklist on .
Just for fun, from La Porte Weather Now (laporteweathernow.com). Not an official inspection or certification. Official watches and warnings come from the National Weather Service.
Keep these close.
- Alerts page: every watch and warning for La Porte County in full, what to do, and free warnings on your phone.
- Snow day: every school district’s official closing and delay page.
- Snow totals: what fell, storm by storm, from the Weather Service’s reports.
- Lake-effect snow: why Michigan City can be buried while La Porte stays dry.
- One-page prep sheet (PDF): tornadoes, storms, floods, winter and rip currents on a single page.
- En español: el tiempo y las alertas para La Porte.
In an emergency, call 911.