OHIO — Anyone who lives in the Buckeye State knows the weather can often be unpredictable.
The best way to stay safe when severe weather strikes is to be informed.
You can learn all about the weather during one of The National Weather Service’s Skywarn weather spotter training classes.
These public classes are taught by meteorologists with the National Weather Service, like Alexa Mains.
NWS spotter training links:
During the class, students are taught the basics of storm development, how to identify potentially severe weather and how to report their findings to the proper authorities.
“We have a network of trained weather spotters that provide us with storm reports during severe weather,” Mains said. “Getting those extra reports really helps us make good warning decisions, and it really helps us with our verification statistics.”
Anyone is able to become a trained spotter by taking one of the many classes offered throughout the spring.
“So, anytime we have severe weather they will keep an eye out on the weather and send us any reports that they have so downed trees, hail, flooding, tornados — that type of thing,” she explained.
These classes are free, but you will need to register for them online in advance.