The Adair & Guthrie County Emergency Management Agency and National Weather Service in Des Moines will host a Virtual Storm Spotter Training Session on March 17, 2021 at 7:00 PM via GoToWebinar. This training session is open to the all county responders and the public. The virtual training session is free. Adair/Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf says the session will acquaint attendees with basic information on the formation of severe weather storms and how they function. What to report, as well as how and where to communicate this information will be covered. After the training, you may register as a severe storm spotter with the National Weather Service. Real-time ground truth from storm spotters is essential to rounding out the other information provided from radar, satellite, and from automated weather sensors.

According to Chad Hahn, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, “the 2021 spotter training will once again be 100% virtual. Turnout & reception was positive during the 2020 spotter training season & we would expect the same for this year.” Each session will again run 60-75 minutes in length.

Kempf says “By being aware of the possibility of severe weather or tornados in your area, you can react to rapidly changing weather conditions and improve you, your family and your community’s safety in such an event. As a trained spotter serving your area and providing the National Weather Service with severe storm reports, meteorologists can correlate your real‑time information of storm activity with the data they are receiving by radar to better warn your downstream neighbors of the impending severe weather dangers.”

Why does National Weather Service need severe weather reports from trained weather spotters? The Doppler Radar provides great detail to National Weather Service warning meteorologists, but it is unable to tell exactly what is happening on the ground. Trained weather spotters fill in this gap of information.

Registration is required to attend and can be completed at: http://bit.ly/2Lm59nK

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.