COORDINATOR - TOM PREISER, N2XW
ASST. COORDINATOR - KEITH YODICE, KC2OON

Welcome to the official Ocean County NJ Skywarn website.

Brick, New Jersey, weather forecast

WHAT IS SKYWARN?

SKYWARN is a National Weather Service (NWS) program of trained volunteer severe weather spotters. SKYWARN is a program that saves lives and property through observations and reports from trained volunteers. The NWS relies more on us to be their eyes in the field. The NWS may utilize the SKYWARN Amateur Radio operators to maintain close coordination with the Red Cross and Emergency Management through ARES/RACES. SKYWARN is formally acknowledged and encouraged in a Memorandum of Understanding between the ARRL and the NWS. This agreement states that the ARRL will encourage its local volunteers operating as ARES to provide spotters as requested by the NWS during times of severe weather. In this area of the country we receive our weather forecast and warnings from the Mount Holly, NJ office of the NWS. Mount Holly is responsible for 34 Counties in NJ, DE, MD and PA. They have a close working relationship with the Weather Channel and a lot of what you see on TV is provided by the NWS.

HOW DOES SKYWARN WORK?
HOW DOES THE SKYWARN AMATEUR RADIO NET WORK?

HOW DOES SKYWARN WORK?

When hazardous weather occurs such as severe thunderstorms, floods, tornadoes, snow and ice storms, our volunteers report what is happening at their location. They are asked to report whenever certain criteria are met such as when one inch of rain has fallen, six inches of snow is on the ground, a thunderstorm is producing hail, or trees have been blown down. Reports arrive at our office via Packet radio, Amateur radio or telephone. The reports are combined with radar and satellite data to determine what the storms will do next. Spotters provide the "ground-truth". Radar may tell us that heavy rain/snow is falling, but it can not tell us how much is on the ground. Spotters can. The reports are used to send out statements, warnings and short-term forecasts to the public via the media. The reports also go into "Storm Data", which is a publication that documents severe weather across the country and can be used to create a severe weather climatology (or history) of a local county or city.

HOW DOES THE SKYWARN AMATEUR RADIO NET WORK?

Half our volunteers are licensed amateur radio operators. The dedication of these folks make them ideal SKYWARN spotters. Each county, or a group of counties, is assigned a County Coordinator/Net Controller and several assistants. Whenever SKYWARN activation is requested by the NWS Forecast Office in Philadelphia / Mount Holly, these CC/NC's notify all SKYWARN volunteers in their county via amateur radio. When severe or unusual weather is observed by these volunteers, they relay their report directly to their Net Controller. The Net Controller then sends the report to the NWS via APRS/Packet radio. When The NWS receives this report it is automatically printed for use by the forecasters. Since phone calls take time away from other duties of the forecasters, this system is ideal for the NWS and the HAM radio community.

SKYWARN NET FREQUENCIES

PRIMARY FREQUENCY
145.170 MHz output, 144.570 MHz input,
PL of 131.8, FM, WA2RES/R in Manchester

SECONDARY FREQUENCY
146.550 MHz Simplex

TRAINING NETS



Training nets are conducted weekly with Ocean County ARES on Wednesday evenings at 8:30 PM.
ARES Training nets are as follows:
Each Wednesday (Except the third Wed): WA2RES/R in Manchester, 145.170 MHz, PL of 131.8, -600 KHz Third Wednesday of the month: N2OO/R in Manahawkin, 146.835 MHz, PL of 127.3, -600 KHz