Skywarn® is the National Weather Service (NWS) program of trained volunteer severe weather spotters. Skywarn® spotters support their local community and government by providing the NWS and county emergency managers with real-time severe weather reports. These reports, when received by meteorologists and integrated with modern NWS technology, can then be used to inform citizens of the proper actions to take as severe weather threatens.

Why do meteorologists need severe weather reports from weather spotters during severe weather events? Doppler radar was designed to look into storm clouds and their surroundings to detect wind currents and other storm structures that suggest whether a storm is severe or on its way to becoming severe. Ground truth information reported by spotters under or near a storm greatly enhances the warning process by correlating actual storm structure with radar signatures that NWS meteorologists view and use to make warning decisions.

We, the amateur radio Skywarn® Spotters, are the fastest method of storm spotting at the disposal of the National Weather Service. We are able to transmit our observations quite literally, at the speed of light. Other spotters, somewhere around 40% of the total number, provide quick information using public service communications. With the ability to rapidly communicate the ground truth comes a great responsibility, particularly considering that Cuyahoga County Skywarn® services one county on a primary basis.

About the national Skywarn® effort

The effects of severe weather are felt every year by many Americans. To obtain critical weather information, 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.

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 are part of the ranks of citizens who form the Nation’s first line of defense against severe weather. There can be no finer reward than to know that their efforts have given communities the precious gift of time–seconds and minutes that can help save lives.