I took a basic weather spotter class in Edwardsburg, MI on March 31st. I want to take the advanced training next year.
If you are interested in spotter training you should contact your local Warning Coordination Meteorologist. For my area you can get more information about Skywarn at the Northern Indiana NWS Skywarn Information website.
You might be thinking why should I do this? We have modern equipment and RADAR. Why do they still need weather spotters? Well after going to this class you will know why. Radar really has a lot of limitations. It takes about 5 minutes to get an image and at about 50 miles out from the radar it can’t see anything under 3500 feet. Think about that for a few minutes. If you have low level rotation in the storm it is possible that the radar can’t see it and a lot can happen in 5 minutes. Early warning is what saves lives and as a spotter you could help. It only takes about 3 hours out of your life.
I have also updated my weather site Redfield Weather with a bunch of interesting links I got at the spotter training class. You can get to those links here, http://www.redfieldweather.com/NOAA/Default.aspx. I also made several other updates. I have updated the regional radar map to a larger animated image and I also added an animated lightning strike map that is populated from my lightning detector.
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