Weather spotter training will be offered this week

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KENNEBEC — The National Weather Service will offer weather spotter training for emergency management officials and the public at several locations this week during Severe Weather Awareness Week, April 25-29, including at the Kennebec Fire Hall on Wednesday.

“For anyone who attends, we will go over cloud identification, severe storm identification, various structure identification,” said David Hintz, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Aberdeen. “We’ll look at what’s important and what isn’t — what to pay attention to and how to communicate with the weather service.”

Spotters will also learn how to stay abreast of incoming storm systems and spot them five days in advance. Spotters can view the hazardous weather outlook each day and if the National Weather Service is anticipating severe weather, spotters can identify where and when it might occur.

Hintz recommends residents attend the spotter training simply to become more aware for their own safety or for their community.

“We don’t look for them to be out driving around when severe weather is occurring,” he said. “They’ll be registered as a spotter in our database.”

Part of the training will include registering to be a home spotter. Hintz said the National Weather Service does not use anyone’s information for anything other than finding the latitude and longitude of where a storm is located.

Typically, people sent out during storms are law enforcement, fire officials or emergency management staffers. Storm chasers usually come from out of the area and gather data from the storm system, he said.

“We advise people to be spotters,” he said.

Spotting does not require high-tech tools — some invest in a rain gauge or anemometer to measure wind speed. Ongoing training is available through SKYWARN, a volunteer program overseen by the National Weather Service. They report critical storm information to aid the NWS during severe weather.

Hintz will teach the spotter training in Kennebec, which will begin at 6:30 p.m.

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