Storm Spotters Learn What To Look For When Severe Weather Hits

Jeff Johnson with the Des Moines office of the National Weather Service talks with participants at a recent storm spotter course in Oskaloosa.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Severe weather season is fast approaching, and the National Weather Service recently conducted a near two hour course to help train and refresh the much relied upon storm spotters.

Storm spotters are an all volunteer group that helps supply more accurate information from eyes on the ground than untrained personnel do.

Mahaska County Emergency Manager Jamey Robinson talked about the importance of spotters. “It’s important to have trained spotters during severe weather so that the NWS can determine if what they are seeing on the radar is what is actually happening. People can sign up with the national weather service and be issued a number, during weather they pull up their record of spotters and will reach out to them for accuracy of their radar. This also gives our emergency responders training that they can utilize when they are out in the field. Our departments respond to set locations throughout the county during severe weather so that we can get the word out as quickly as possible.”

Mahaska County has also had its storm ready designation updated for the next 3 years. The National Weather Service presents the designation only after an entity fulfills a very stringent requirement. During the initial designation, NWS meteorologist said, “StormReady encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations and public awareness,” said Jeff Johnson with the Des Moines office of the National Weather Service. “It takes a lot of work. They have to go through a fairly rigorous application process, followed by dispatcher training for the dispatchers of required spotter training, visits to our office (National Weather Service in Des Moines) and other things that the county needs to show, particularly in the area of communication and dealing with severe weather as it happens, to get this recognition.”