SKYWARN is a concept developed in the early 1970s that was intended to promote a cooperative effort between the National Weather Service and communities. The emphasis of the effort is often focused on the storm spotter, an individual who takes a position near their community and reports wind gusts, hail size, rainfall, and cloud formations that could signal a developing tornado. Another part of SKYWARN is the receipt and effective distribution of National Weather Service information. 

SKYWARN spotters are not by definition "Storm Chasers". While their functions and methods are similar, the spotter stays close to home and usually has ties to a local agency. Storm chasers often cover hundreds of miles a day. The term Storm Chaser covers a wide variety of people. Some are meteorologists doing specific research or are gathering basic information (like video) for training and comparison to radar data. Others chase storms to provide live information for the media, and others simply do it for the thrill. Storm Spotting and Storm Chasing is dangerous and should not be done without proper training, experience and equipment.

SKYWARN groups work independent of a parent government agency and feed valuable information to the National Weather Service. While this provides the radar meteorologist with much needed input, the circuit is not complete if the information does not reach those who can activate sirens or local broadcast systems.

In many counties across the country you can expect to find nearly 300 spotters in EACH county. You might ask... why are spotters relevant with current radar technologies? Well, while radar can provide detailed data it cannot tell how large hail is or how much ice has accumulated on the ground as well as real time on the ground feedback. One of the main services a spotter provides to his/her community is Tornado spotting. When doppler scans the horizon it takes a series of SLICES starting from bottom to top of the horizon and it can take up to five minutes to return to a slice of the horizon where a Tornado was forming. As you know a Tornado can form and cut a deadly path all within a few minutes and this could take place before doppler returned to the point where the Tornado in question was forming. In these circumstances a spotter might be the only warning that gets to the local NWS station allowing a Tornado watch or warning to be sent to the public within moments of an actual Tornado formation as well as feedback on intensity and likely continued direction.

Gary is a certified SkyWarn tracker and reports critical weather data to the NWS office. If you would like to become a NOAA/SkyWarn tracker/spotter contact Gary for more information.