Skywarn Classes

[Flightmare]

https://www.skywarn.org/about/

This is a course offered by the National Weather Service at no out of pocket cost to those wishing to attend. I'm personally planning to attend the Collin county one on January 20th, which is why I won't be able to make the Arlington breakfast.

[RoyGBiv]

There are several courses available through NWS. Some are intended to be training for folks who want to volunteer to be "storm spotters" (NWS frowns on the term "storm chasers", since chasing storms can be dangerous business and is not encouraged), others are just great information for regular folks who want to better understand storm development and how to evaluate/assess what they see when they look at approaching storms. "Is that storm dangerous?" "How do I know?" and more...

If you live in Texas (or Oklahoma!) and have never attended the NWS basic class, please make an effort to attend. It's time well spent. There are actually 2 parts of the class. The first is an overview and the second is more detailed. Both are very good. When I see the advanced class scheduled it's almost always in the afternoon following the basic class, so you can spend a Saturday and do both. The "Storm Spotter" training class is sometimes a separate class, but sometimes done together with the basic class. That class is more about how to interact with NWS if you sign up to be a spotter.

Online resources:
http://training.weather.gov/wxspot.php
https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=23

If you want to be a spotter: https://www.weather.gov/oun/skywarn-spotter

Fort Worth area, next class...

South Hills High School 6010 McCart
January 27, 2018. Doors open at 7:45AM
-- Basic Skywarn Training 9:00 - 11:30
-- Advanced Skywarn and Radar Interpretation 1:00pm - 3:30pm
(No advanced registration required)

[Flightmare]

Unfortunately, with the democrats shutting down the government, the Collin County skywarn class was cancelled. The website says "postponed" for now. I think this is the first time that a federal government shut down has had any noticeable impact on me personally.

[ET-Ret]

If you want some expert advice on storm spotting see if can find a short video with Allan Moller
called Terrible Tuesday . I have seen it several times and it always gives me creeps.
I was looking out the fifth floor windows of a hotel in Norman OK when a F5 went up us 35 to the west up past Norman then went NE across 35 at Moore
Later I drove up 35 to OK city and there was a clear trail 1/4 mi wide looked like the were going to build a rode through there. DFW has been lucky in
the last 60 plus years we have had a few small storms but nothing like a F5 In 1957 I lived on the east side of Dallas and climbed on My daddys roof to
watch a F3 go accross from Oak Cliff up to North Dallas somewhere around Bachman Lake.