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Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

A Pacific storm is bringing areas of low elevation rain, moderate to heavy mountain snow, and high winds to the Northwest. Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry conditions are producing elevated to critical fire weather conditions in southern California. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of northeast Texas into western Tennessee. Read More >

2021 Storm Spotter Training Schedule

No Specialized Experience is Needed - Everyone is Welcome!!

 

The National Weather Service Office in North Platte, Nebraska will provide virtual spotter training via the Severe Weather Spotter training in Spring 2021.  Please see the schedule below for our latest online spotter training opportunities.  All interested spotters are welcome to attend any one of our virtual spotter courses, provided that you are a resident in the NWS North Platte service area.  If you have further questions, please contact the Warning Coordination Meteorologist Shawn Jacobs directly.

 

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in North Platte, in coordination with county emergency managers, volunteer fire departments and other local community organizations offer storm spotter classes at several locations to prepare for severe weather season.  If you would like to assist your local community by becoming a volunteer storm spotter and reporting severe weather to the National Weather Service, or if you simply want to learn more about severe weather, consider attending one of our virtual classes. Classes are approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.

Attendees are taught the basics of thunderstorm development, storm structure, the features to look for, and where to find them. What, when and how to report information as well as basic severe weather safety are also covered.

We will also provide an Advanced Spotter Course this year where we will dig deeper into forecasting details of high-based thunderstorms and landspout tornadoes.

Photo Courtesy: Michael Charnick - Frontier County (May 2019)

 

Additional learning opportunities include: 

  1. Weather Spotter's Field Guide - large pdf file which may take a while to download
 
 

The schedule of classes is listed below. One need only attend a single class of each type, but you must attend a Basic course prior to an Advanced course.

Date Type of Training Time
2/25/21 Basic #1 7 PM CST
3/4/21 Basic #2 7 PM CST
3/9/21 Basic #3 7 PM CST
3/16/21 Advanced #1 7 PM CDT
3/19/21 Basic #4 7 PM CDT
3/23/21 Advanced #2 7 PM CDT
3/24/21 Basic #5 7 PM CDT
3/30/21 Basic #6 7 PM CDT
3/31/21 Advanced #3 2 PM CDT
4/6/21 Advanced #4 7 PM CDT
4/7/21 Basic #7 7 PM CDT
4/8/21 Basic #8 7 PM CDT

 
 

BASIC SPOTTER TALK

Registration URL
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7125311849448241424

 

ADVANCED SPOTTER TALK

Registration URL
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/719801197606944526

 

Did you attend one of our training classes?
Enter your information below to receive your Spotter Certificate.

Note: We will NOT distribute this information outside our office.

First Name
Last Name
Class Attended