LAKEPORT – The National Weather Service (NWS) in Sacramento will conduct weather spotter training for Lake County residents on Thursday, Sept. 24.
The training will enable interested citizens to be become volunteers for Project SKYWARN, which helps keep local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.
The training is free and will take place between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the Lakeport Jail Dining Hall, 4913 Helbush Drive Lakeport (just over from the National Guard Armory). This training is co-sponsored by the Lake County Office of Emergency Services.
Storm spotters play a valuable role in the severe weather warning process. The National Weather Service relies on visual observations from spotters to provide critical information that would otherwise not be available to forecasters. Spotter reports are combined with data from Doppler radar and satellite pictures to provide a complete understanding of severe storms and their impact on the public.
The training will begin with a review of severe weather safety tips and severe weather operations at the National Weather Service. Basic storm spotter training will include visual indicators of strong winds, hail, tornadoes, lightning, fire weather, flooding and thunderstorm formation.
They will demonstrate how your reports are used in the weather warning process and identify some critical elements we need to know. The presentation will also discuss the forecast process and how you can help the NWS to issue the best possible warnings to protect the public from severe weather.
Members of the public are welcome to attend. This training will help attendees learn about the severe weather that we experience in the area. The development of storms will be discussed, along with visual clues which may indicate that the weather is about to turn severe.
They also will go over safety tips to allow citizens to be well prepared for the occurrence of storms. Communication of weather reports to the National Weather Service will be explained. Your spotter reports will help Lake County be better prepared when severe weather occurs.
Spotter guides, cloud charts and severe weather pamphlets will be provided to potential new weather spotters. There will be forms available to sign up to become a volunteer weather spotter. Once we receive your form at the National Weather Service, you will be assigned a spotter number and we will send you an information packet.
To provide an estimate of how many people plan to attend, we are requesting that you contact Eric Kurth (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) with the number of people in your interested party. The office phone number is 916-979-3051, if you do not have access to e-mail. They look forward to seeing you there.