SKYWARN TRAINING SESSION

BUFFALO-The Buffalo office of the National Weather Service will be conducting a Winter SKYWARN spottertraining seminar in Lowville, at Lewis County Jefferson Community College Education Center, rooms 4/5, at 7395 East Rd, on Thursday October 27, 2022 at 7:00 PM. The training session will last about one and a half hours and there is no cost for the training.

SKYWARN is a national effort to save lives during severe weather emergencies with an expanding network of trained volunteer weather spotters. SKYWARN spotters support their local community and government by providing reports of severe winter weather directly to the National Weather Service in Buffalo by phone using the NWS spotter hotline. The services performed by SKYWARN spotters have saved many lives.

The National Weather Service has a number of devices for detecting severe winter storms. Included in these are Doppler radar and satellite imagery. However, one of the most important tools for observing winter weather is the trained eye of the storm spotter. By providing observations, SKYWARN spotters assist National Weather Service staff in their warning decisions and enable the National Weather Service to fulfill its mission of protecting life and property. Storm spotters are, and always will be, an indispensable part of the winter warning program.

The basic training session provides a brief overview of the National Weather Service organization and our responsibilities, winter weather safety, and winter weather meteorology including how lake effect snowstorms and larger scale snowstorms develop.

Anyone can become a winter weather spotter for the National Weather Service. SKYWARN training is free and open to the public.

For further information, you can contact Mike Fries at the National Weather Service at (716) 565-0204 ext. 223.