We’ve seen a lot of severe weather this spring – from flooding to high winds and an unprecedented stretch of tornadoes across Wisconsin last month. This is also the time of year when the National Weather Service (NWS) offers local trainings for their Skywarn Storm Spotter Program.
“We have a lot of great tools that help us [detect severe weather], like radar and satellite, but we need boots on the ground to tell us if it’s actually happening,” says NWS Meteorologist Kevin Wagner, who led a recent storm spotter training in Bristol.
Attendees learn how to detect warning signs of severe weather, how to report sever weather to the NWS and how to stay safe while storm spotting. Each free, two-hour long class covers the same material – from severe weather patterns and types of storm clouds to the differences between severe weather warnings and watches.
“Our main mission with the National Weather Service is protection of life and property via weather and decision support services,” Wagner says. “We really want to keep people safe.”
Carl Schultz of Twin Lakes attended the Bristol training with his daughter, Sally, to help her face her fear of storms. He hopes the two can become a storm spotting duo.
“I just wanted her to not be so scared all the time,” he says. “And I think that not being scared comes with knowing more about what's going on.”
You can find a full schedule of Milwaukee-area storm spotter trainings here, and you can find more information and resources on the NWS Skywarn Storm Spotter Program here.
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