Last Updated on February 14, 2024 by KC7NYR
Skywarn – Amateur Radio
What is SKYWARN®?
The United States is the most severe weather-prone country in the world. Each year, people in this country cope with an average of 10,000 thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,200 tornadoes, and two landfalling hurricanes. Approximately 90% of all presidentially declared disasters are weather-related, causing around 500 deaths each year and nearly $14 billion in damage.
SKYWARN® is a National Weather Service (NWS) program developed in the 1960s that consists of trained weather spotters who provide reports of severe and hazardous weather to help meteorologists make life-saving warning decisions. Spotters are concerned citizens, amateur radio operators, truck drivers, mariners, airplane pilots, emergency management personnel, and public safety officials who volunteer their time and energy to report on hazardous weather impacting their community.
Although, NWS has access to data from Doppler radar, satellite, and surface weather stations, technology cannot detect every instance of hazardous weather. Spotters help fill in the gaps by reporting hail, wind damage, flooding, heavy snow, tornadoes and waterspouts. Radar is an excellent tool, but it is just that: one tool among many that NWS uses. We need spotters to report how storms and other hydrometeorological phenomena are impacting their area.
SKYWARN® spotter reports provide vital “ground truth” to the NWS. They act as our eyes and ears in the field. Spotter reports help our meteorologists issue timely, accurate, and detailed warnings by confirming hazardous weather detected by NWS radar. Spotters also provide critical verification information that helps improve future warning services. SKYWARN® Spotters serve their local communities by acting as a vital source of information when dangerous storms approach. Without spotters, NWS would be less able to fulfill its mission of protecting life and property.
The Skywarn® Program
Skywarn® is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service’s (NWS) severe weather spotting program with nearly 290,000 trained volunteers nationwide. Since the late 1960s, trained Skywarn® spotters have helped support the NWS’ primary mission of protecting life and property through the issuance
of severe weather warnings. These dedicated citizens help keep their local community safe by conveying severe weather reports to their local NWS Forecast Office.
Skywarn® spotters are integral to the success of our Nation’s severe weather warningsystem. Every year the NWS conducts Skywarn® spotter training sessions. The NWS currently has 122 Weather Forecast Office’s across the nation, each with a Warning Coordination Meteorologist, who is responsible for administering the Skywarn® program in their local area. There is no charge and a typical class takes about 2 hours to conduct.
I suggest getting an NWSCHAT account at https://nwschat.weather.gov/ to get the most current information from the National Weather Service and to send weather reports during extreme weather situations.
Visit Northwest Oregon SKYWARN Page for detailed information.
Skywarn Spotter Training – The National Weather Service welcomes volunteers with an interest in severe weather spotting. The SKYWARN™ program is a voluntary noble civic service. Reports made by spotters provide visual confirmation of potentially severe weather and aid forecasters in issuing warnings. +++ NWS Portland Weather Spotter Training Schedule. ++++
Online Storm Spotter Training Materials: Please note, If you want to get your spotter number, you must attend a Skywarn Class near you. the online training materials is a great way to learn the basics before attending a class.
Role of the Skywarn Spotter COMET Module
SKYWARN Spotter Convective Basics COMET Module
SKYWARN Weather Spotter’s Field Guide (large pdf file which may take a while to download)
Spotter Training COMET Course
Severe Weather Spotters are a vital link in the timely and accurate flow of weather information into and out of weather forecast offices. Click here to learn more. Storm Spotter training is available to the public as conducted by the local NOAA/NWS Forecast Office on an annual scheduled basis. If you are interested in attending these training sessions and becoming a spotter, please contact your local NOAA/NWS Forecast office or the national coordinator:
National Coordinator: Chris Maier, phone: 301-427-9305, email: [email protected]
Skywarn – Portland Office: https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/skywarn.php
NWS Forecast Office Portland, OR: https://www.weather.gov/pqr/
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