In most of Indiana, it seems as if winter just arrived. So it might surprise you to know that your chance to become a trained, volunteer storm spotter for the National Weather Service (NWS) (or refresh your knowledge) might be less than a month away.
NWS offices provide training in multiple, identical sessions throughout their county warning areas. To finish all the presentations before the spring severe storm season gets underway, many offices schedule their first sessions near the beginning of February.
For example, the northern Indiana NWS office plans to conduct its first session of the year Feb. 3 in Napoleon, Ohio. It scheduled its first session in Indiana for Feb. 4, in Elkhart.
Because each session is identical, you need not attend the session nearest you, if another session is more convenient.
To be an NWS SKYWARN storm spotter volunteer, all you need is:
- An interest in helping to protect your community from severe weather
- Training to distinguish harmless, scary-looking clouds from truly threatening conditions and to report with correct terminology.
- A way to communicate with the NWS (e.g. a phone, Internet access and/or a ham radio license and appropriate radio gear).
You don’t need any knowledge of weather or science. The NWS will teach you everything you need to know. You don’t even need a car! Some spotters never leave their homes, yet provide valuable information to the NWS.
To learn about training opportunities, visit the Web page of the NWS office that serves your county. At the time I wrote this, it appeared that some of the offices below (all of which serve parts of Indiana) had not yet posted their 2016 training schedules. If that’s the case for the office that covers your county, keep checking back, because those offices will very likely publish their schedules soon.
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