Overview:  
Skywarn Weather Spotters are critical to the mission of the National Weather Service, which is to protect lives and property by issuing watches, warnings and advisories.  The NWS has a lot of highly sophisticated equipment such as satellites and radars, but these tools do not replace the very important ground truth that weather spotters provide.   Weather warnings are issued based on these reports, and can save lives and property of those living downstream of a spotter report. 

In northeast Montana, there are approximately 1200 weather observers in the 12 counties and one reservation that NWS Glasgow serves. 

Training: 
The Skywarn Spotter courses are generally held in April and May in various locations around the region.  A training schedule is posted on the website each spring. You can find that page at this link. 

There is an official online Skywarn training course that you can take if you are unable to attend a class in person. You can take both of the modules and submit your certificates to the NWS Glasgow office to be included in the northeast Montana Skywarn program.  The course is available here.

Once the online course is complete, you can email your certificates to Scott Rozanski or mail them to NWS Glasgow, attn. Scott Rozanski, 92 Airport Road, Glasgow MT 59230.

Making Reports:  
Weather spotters are asked to report hazardous weather conditions through various methods including an 800 phone number they are given during Skywarn Spotter training.  Other methods include email, our Facebook page and twitter reports. 

The general public is welcome to report hazardous weather to the NWS  Glasgow office at 406-228-4042 or post photos and reports on our Facebook page. 

Reports can also be sent to our X (formerlyTwitter) account using @NWSGlasgow and #mtwx (for Montana only reports) or #wxreport (this goes into a nationwide collective of weather reports). 

Are you interested in reporting precipitation on a regular basis?  Join the CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow) network.