Generally after a strong storm, heavy snow or even a beautiful sunset, our WVVA Weather Facebook page starts to fill up with viewer submitted photos and weather reports. Thank you so much for sharing what you see out there.
Your reports help, especially during complex weather situations where just a few miles and a few degrees on the thermometer mean the difference between a cold rain and heavy wet snow.
The National Weather Service also utilizes reports from the public in severe weather situations. Often at the end of a weather bulletin message, a phone number and website is given, encouraging severe weather reports from the public.
Travis Roberts at a NWS storm spotter training with WVVA’s Stan Sweet
This spring, the National Weather Service in Blacksburg is training Skywarn spotters. When I was only 10 years old, I became a storm spotter after completing training at WVVA.
We will be hosting a SKYWARN® training class at the WVVA studios on Monday, April 6th from 7pm to 9pm. You have to sign up to attend, so email weather@wvva.com with your name, phone number & how many will be attending! The class is limited to 50 individuals, so sign up fast!
The following information is from the National Weather Service website regarding the SKYWARN® program. (nws.noaa.gov/skywarn)
NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, established SKYWARN® with partner organizations. SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 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 main responsibility of a SKYWARN® spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms. In the average year, 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes occur across the United States. These events threatened lives and property.
For Weather Enthisiasts
If you are a weather enthusiast like me, this is a great opportunity to learn more and help your community!
Here is a flashback video of me giving one of my first weather reports at at 10 years old. Every evening at this age I would watch the 6pm weather forecast and hand-draw a surface map on my trusty chalkboard. I was, and remain an enthusiast…to say the least!