Source: National Weather Service Indianapolis
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.
Skywarn spotter talks will be held virtually on 6 dates in March. Sign up is going well and there is still plenty of room for people in all sessions. Pre-registration is required and details can be found at https://www.weather.gov/ind/spotter. Anyone with a weather interest is encouraged to attend one of these free sessions.
Register for weather spotter trainings from the Indianapolis NWS office below:
- March 6, 2021 at 10:00 AM EST Register Here
- March 8, 2021 at 6:30 PM EST Register Here
- March 10, 2021 at 4:00 PM EST Register Here
- March 13, 2021 at 10:00 AM EST Register Here
- March 22, 2021 at 6:30 PM EDT Register Here
- March 24, 2021 at 2:00 PM EDT Register Here
