Published: February 25, 2008 11:38 pm            

More than 60 learn how to spot severe weather

Spotters vital in helping to identify dangerous storms

TERRE HAUTE — Amateur radio operators and others took time out Monday night to learn how to identify dangerous storms.

“Storm spotters can play an important and even critical role” in identifying severe weather, said Dave Tucek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

Tucek spoke to more than 60 amateur radio operators and other weather spotters gathered for the 2008 Weather Spotter Class sponsored by Illiana Skywarn, a severe weather monitoring and reporting organization.

Skywarn, a national organization, works with the National Weather Service to help identify severe weather at the ground level, said David Pifer, Vigo County emergency coordinator for amateur radio in Illiana Skywarn.

Storm spotters are vital in identifying dangerous storms at the ground level, Tucek said. Weather radar often only tells the National Weather Service what is happening several thousand feet above the ground, he said. “We don’t know what’s going on down here at ground level.”

Weather spotters, such as those in Illiana Skywarn, are vital for issuing correct severe weather warnings, watches and advisories, Tucek said.

“It’s a great relationship,” Pifer said of the cooperation between amateur radio operators and the National Weather Service. There are around 700 amateur radio operators in Vigo County alone, he said. Dozens of amateur radio operators keep in contact during severe weather events in the Terre Haute area, he said.

Some weather spotters watch the weather radar, others monitor weather from their homes and some travel to good locations to watch storm activity, Pifer said. “They do a little bit of everything,” he said.

At Monday night’s class, storm spotters got a lesson in spotting potentially severe weather formations. The class, which took place at the World Gospel Church on Terre Haute’s east side, included a PowerPoint presentation on powerful storm cloud formations.

For more information on Illiana Skywarn, see the organization’s Web site, www.illianaskywarn.net.

For more information about amateur radio in the Terre Haute area, see www.w9uuu.org.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

        

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