Join 13WREX and the Chicago office of the National Weather Service as we get you prepared for the 2007 Severe Weather Season. Mark your calendars for Saturday March 24th for this year's seminar. It will be held at the Chicago/Rockford International Airport's Public Safety Building (just to the right of the international terminal) at 9:00am.Discussions will include the different types of severe weather clouds, how to identify a tornado or funnel clouds, and the conditions that promote severe weather and tornado development, as well as how to make a report.
This is a great seminar for those interested in severe weather, not just those who are out there spotting for the National Weather Service or 13WREX.
Milwaukee's National Weather Service had their seminar today in Janesville. One of our weather watchers, Ruth, tells of her experience:
"I went to the NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan office's Storm Spotter training in Janesville today. It was split into 2 parts: basic and advanced with a break in between.
The training focused on:
- What to report.
- What NOT to report.
- Measuring & estimating (hail size, wind speed, distance, etc.)
- Knowing where you are. Look at your watch. They need precise reports of where and when, not guesses.
- Structure of a storm.
- Shelf clouds.
- Wall clouds.
- Anvils.
- Beaver Tails.
- Scary Looking Clouds (that aren't tornados - DO NOT REPORT as tornados!)
- Rotation (observing and identifying).
- Debris. Condensation funnel not always visible. Its still a tornado - DO report.
- Where to observe from safely.
- When trees, buildings, hills obscure the view.
- When to quit observing or videotaping and GetTheHeckOuttaThere!
- More Updrafts and Downdrafts.
- Hail.
- Straight line winds. Outflow Boundaries.
- Various things that aren't tornados.
- Various things that are tornados.
- Life cycle of a tornado.
- Dangerous/difficult storms to observe.
- Gustnados, landspouts, dust devils, etc.
- Hook Echos, Bow Echos & other cool stuff on radar.
Most importantly they focused on:
1) Above all, stay safe. Do NOT put yourself in harm's way to observe a storm. You need to know what you are looking at to do it safely. This includes identifying the storm's structure, motion, dynamics.
2) Storm Spotting isn't a contest to see who can call it in first. Go for 100% accuracy, not for trying to "be the first one" to report.
3) If you don't know what you're looking at, DON'T REPORT. They don't need false reports.
4) If you do see something, DO REPORT. They need "eyes on the ground" to know what is happening at ground level. Radar doesn't see what's happening at ground level.
You can see some of their cool slide shows here." -RuthG
Thanks again Ruth for the report. It's definitely stuff that everyone should be aware of. The more people go to these seminars, the better off everyone will be. For the past three years I've attended the seminar in Rockford and it seems to get bigger and bigger every year.Hope to see everyone there!
So, who's up for a little Saturday morning fun?-ERIC
2 comments:
I've been trying to figure this out... how long is this class? Is it a whole day thing? And does this give some sort of certification to officially be a spotter or is it just for knowledge? thanks
The class lasts about 2-3 hours, not all day.
If you just want to go for the knowledge/info that's great. They're happy to see you. In fact they usually suggest that you don't start spotting for NWS right away. They recomment that you take the class several times & get some experience observing the weather phenomena they're teaching about before you start calling in reports. (This is not a requirement, just a suggestion.)
The Chicago/Romeoville office of NWS (the one that gives the classes in northern IL) does give out wallet cards & certificates to those who want one; the Milwaukee/Sullivan office (the one that gives classes in southern Wisconsin) doesn't - they just take names & contact info for those who want to be spotters.
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