2012 Severe Weather Spotter Class Schedule (Updated 4/19)

Dropped completed classes

For South-central and Southeast Wisconsin

***Unless otherwise noted below, all classes are open to the general public, & you don't have to be a spotter***

***Generally, pre-registration is not required – just show up. However, some classes are standing-room only, so you may want to contact the county Emergency Management Director prior to the class***

***Unless otherwise noted below, all classes will incorporate basic and intermediate advanced info***

***Some Counties will have more than one type of spotter class (see "Key" below)***

***You can attend a spotter class outside of your home county***

***Bring a mailing address sticker with you – it speeds up the sign-in process***

***Check back often for changes and updates***

Key:

"Rusty In-person" Spotter Classes.

“MASA In-person” Spotter Classes

“MidWest SSTRC In-person” Spotter Classes

GoToWebinar classes conducted by Rusty – generally held in sheriff, police and/or fire departments, or librarys or extension offices. Specific locations will be listed as they become known.

Date County Class details

Apr 23 Lafayette Darlington - Lafayette County Courthouse - 1st floor, 7-9 pm

Apr 24 Fond du Lac Marian University, Stayer Center, 630-830 pm

*Slide sets used in spotter classes can be found on our Local SkyWarn Spotter Page

MidWest SSTRC - MidWest Severe Storm Tracking/Response Center

MASA - Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association

A big thanks is extended to the two volunteer organizations listed above for their generosity in conducting several "in-person" severe weather spottter classes! Click on their name to navigate to their web sites.

Why you should attend a severe weather spotter class...even if you don't want to be a spotter!

* If you are a first-responder, you deal with public safety issues. Severe weather events, such as tornadoes, flash floods, and powerful thunderstorm downburst winds, are a public safety issue. Why not learn how to anticipate and identify severe weather before it starts? Knowledge will never hurt anyone!

* If you have participated as a severe weather spotter for your agency or jurisdiction and/or relayed a severe weather report to your 911 Comms Center, but have never attended a spotter class, are you confident that you will be, or were, 100% correct in identifying the event you will, or did, experience?

* Did you know that there are cloud features that foretell the development of a tornado or a powerful thunderstorm downburst wind event? Wouldn't it be neat to be able to recognize those cloud features? Your timely information could lead to an earlier tornado warning and potentially save lives! Now, how can you beat that?

* Did you know that a tornado can occur but never have a visible funnel cloud associated with it? In other words, the visible funnel cloud isn't the tornado, and a tornado can develop before there is a visible funnel cloud. So you need to learn what a tornado and funnel cloud really are! If all of this is confusing, then you need to attend a severe weather spotter class!

* Last, but not least, severe weather spotters provide ground and cloud base information that can't be detected by the National Weather Service's (NWS) WSR-88D Doppler Radar system. The earth's curvature and a straight radar beam limit the ability of Doppler Radar to detect things below cloud base the greater the distance from the radar location. Spotters become "field eyes" for the NWS, verifying what the radar sees or does not see!

On-line National SKYWARN Spotter Training Courses

Please read informatiion found in this archived Top News of the Day story.

Additional Spotter Resources

Local SkyWarn Spotter Page

You will find a wealth of resource documents, slide sets, and reference guides on the SkyWarn Spotter Page, inlcuding the four slide sets used in our severe weather spotter classes.

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National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

2012 Severe Weather Spotter Class Schedule (Updated 4/19)