SKYWARN is a concept developed in the early 1970s that was intended to promote a cooperative effort between the National Weather Service and communities. The emphasis of the effort is often focused on the storm spotter, an individual who takes a position near their community and reports wind gusts, hail size, rainfall, and cloud formations that could signal a developing tornado. Another part of SKYWARN is the receipt and effective distribution of National Weather Service information.

The organization of spotters and the distribution of warning information may lie with the National Weather Service or with an emergency management agency within the community. This agency could be a police or fire department, or often is an emergency management/service group (what people might still think of as civil defense groups). This varies across the country however, with local national weather service offices taking the lead in some locations, while emergency management takes the lead in other areas.

SKYWARN is not a club or organization, however, in some areas where Emergency Management programs do not perform the function, people have organized SKYWARN groups that work independent of a parent government agency and feed valuable information to the National Weather Service. While this provides the radar meteorologist with much needed input, the circuit is not complete if the information does not reach those who can activate sirens or local broadcast systems.

SKYWARN spotters are not by definition "Storm Chasers". While their functions and methods are similar, the spotter stays close to home and usually has ties to a local agency. Storm chasers often cover hundreds of miles a day. The term Storm Chaser covers a wide variety of people. Some are meteorologists doing specific research or are gathering basic information (like video) for training and comparison to radar data. Others chase storms to provide live information for the media, and others simply do it for the thrill.

Storm Spotting and Storm Chasing is dangerous and should not be done without proper training, experience and equipment.

The National Weather Service conducts spotter training classes across the United States, and your local National Weather Service office should be consulted as to when the next class will be held.

Information taken from SKYWARN National Homepage

Weather Radio Frequencies:

City	MHz	Transmitter Power
Escanaba	162.500	1000 watts
Wausaukee	162.400	1000 watts
Marquette	162.550	300 watts
Sister Bay	162.425	500 watts
Wausau	162.475	1000 watts

National Weather Service in Marquette
NEXRAD Doppler Radar
NOAA Radar, Marquette
The Weather Channel
Hurricane Watch Net
Storm Prediction Center
Storm Spotter Maps


Michigan Weather Watches
Michigan Weather Warnings
Upper Peninsula Skywarn

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
ARES Net Script (Net held every Thursday evening at 6:30 PM Central Time)
Michigan Section Amateur Radio Public Service Corps (ARPSC)
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN)

Mich-A-Con ARC Skywarn Net
The Skywarn Net should be activated if any of the following conditions exist:

• A weather watch/warning for our area is announced on TV or NOAA Weather Radio.
  
• A weather watch/warning is announced on the 146.85 repeater by WX8MQT (Marquette NWS.)
  
• The Dickinson County Emergency Coordinator directs that the Net be activated.
  

Mich-A-Con ARC Skywarn Net Procedure
Mich-A-Con ARC Skywarn Net Control Script

Reports of the following conditions should normally be reported to the Mich-A-Con ARC Net Control Operator via the club's 146.85 repeater. However, if the Net has not been activated or you are unable to access the Net, please use the toll-free phone number below:

• Tornado or Funnel Cloud
  
• Wall Cloud: rotating, non-rotating
  
• Hail: Any size
  
• Wind Damage: Trees and branches broken (give diameter), structural damage, etc.
  
• Heavy Rain: 1" or more per hour
  
• Heavy Snow: 1" or more per hour, accumulations of 2" or more
  
• Flooding: Water over roadways, streams/rivers rising to 1 ft. of bankfull, over bankfull, flood damage
  

Call: 1-800-828-8002 and give the following information:

• Who: Name/Spotter ID
  
• What: Is happening
  
• Where: Event is occurring
  
• When: Did event start/end - include time zone
  
• Movement of the event (observe storm as a whole, not the movement of small cloud elements)
  

SKYWARN Training
Even with Doppler weather radar and advanced weather satellites, there is a need for storm spotters. The radar and satellites help meteorologists detect storm features often associated with severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, but radar and satellites do not by themselves provide ground-based reports of cloud features, hail size, thunderstorm wind speeds, and tornado touchdowns. Storm spotters provide emergency managers and weather forecasters with these vital, real-time observations of tornadoes, hail, damaging wind, flooding, and winter storms.

Storm spotter training provides initial instruction for new spotters and refresher training for experienced spotters. The training focuses on safety, the observational aspects of storm structure and evolution, and reporting criteria and procedures. To become a storm spotter and to stay current with the latest science, techniques and procedures, new spotters as well as veteran spotters should attend a spotter training session. The training is presented by National Weather Service personnel based in Marquette, Michigan. NWS training classes typically last about 1 1/2 hours. Advance reservations are not required, and there is no charge for the training.

Date & Time	Mon, April 28 - 6:30pm CDT
City	Iron Mountain
Location	Bay College West
Room	Fornetti Hall
Contact	Matt Zika, NWS MQT
Phone	(906) 475-5212
E-mail	[email protected]