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Online severe weather spotter training opportunities

SKYWARN training moves online this spring

Tornado
This image made from video provided by Thomas Marcum shows a tornado seen from State Highway 48 in Durant, Okla., Wednesday, April 22, 2020.
Thomas Marcum via AP

Yet another effect of the coronavirus pandemic? Online severe weather spotter training classes.

Meteorologists at the Twin Cities National Weather Service and other NWS offices have pivoted to adapt severe weather training in the pandemic era.

SKYWARN
SKYWARN
NOAA

SKYWARN training classes help train severe weather spotters in the field to relay real-time severe weather reports to NWS offices around the country.

Trained spotters in the field report storm reports of severe hail, wind gusts, flooding rains, and tornadoes.

The information is critical to local NWS offices who use that ground truth to refine the severe weather warning process.

In most years, thunderstorms, tornadoes and lightning cause hundreds of injuries and deaths and billions in property and crop damages.  To obtain critical weather information, the National Weather Service (NWS) established SKYWARN® with partner organizations. SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with between 350,000 and 400,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.

Although SKYWARN® spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the focus is reporting on severe local thunderstorms. In an average year, the United States experiences more than 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes.

Since the program started in the 1970s, the information provided by SKYWARN® spotters, coupled with Doppler radar technology, improved satellite and other data, has enabled NWS to issue more timely and accurate warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash floods. SKYWARN® storm spotters form the nation's first line of defense against severe weather. There can be no finer reward than to know that your efforts have given your family and neighbors the precious gift of time--minutes that can help save lives.

Recent online training opportunities, like this one hosted by the Duluth NWS office, have been well attended.

Here’s is a list of sessions from the Twin Cities NWS office.

NWS Twin Cities presents the Spring 2020 Skywarn Spotter Training. Sign up for a free class. Classes will last approximately one hour and include information about severe weather safety, storm structure, intensity and tornado development, and how you can help the NWS in severe weather. Content is appropriate for all ages - invite the whole family!

You will have to sign up to attend the GoToWebinar sessions.
Click the following link to sign up: https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/7049938121727200524

You do not need to sign up for the Facebook live classes. Just follow us on Facebook and you should get a notification when we go live.

Here is the latest calendar from the Duluth NWS office.

And here is the SKYWARN twitter feed for Twin Cities SKYWARN.

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