Seneca County SKYWARN Training Session

The Binghamton office of the National Weather Service will be conducting a SKYWARN spotter training seminar in Waterloo, at the Emergency Management Office, One DiPronio Drive on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 7 pm. The training session is sponsored by Seneca County Emergency Services and will last about two hours. There is no cost for the training.SKYWARN is a national effort to save lives during severe weather emergencies with an expanding network of trained volunteer weather spotters. SKYWARN spotters support their local community and government by providing reports of severe weather directly to the National Weather Service in Binghamton through amateur radio or the NWS spotter hotline. The services performed by SKYWARN spotters have saved many lives.The National Weather Service has a number of devices for detecting severe thunderstorms. Included in these are Doppler radar, satellite, and lightning detection networks. However, the most important tool for observing thunderstorms is the trained eye of the storm spotter. By providing observations, SKYWARN spotters assist National Weather Service staff in their warning decisions and enable the National Weather Service to fulfill its mission of protecting life and property. Storm spotters are, and always will be, an indispensable part of the severe local warning program.The basic training session provides a brief overview to the National Weather Service organization and our responsibilities, severe weather safety, and basic severe weather meteorology including how thunderstorms, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes form.Anyone can become a severe weather spotter for the National Weather Service. SKYWARN training is free and open to the public.For further information, you can contact David Nicosia, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Binghamton at (607) 770-9531 ext. 223 or by email at [email protected]. For information on registration, contact Judy Andrews, Seneca County Emergency Services at (315) 539-1757 or by email at [email protected] information about SKYWARN is available on the NWS Binghamton website at http://www.erh.noaa.gov/bgm/spotters_skywarn/skywarn.shtml