SKYWARN, a program of the National Weather Service (NWS), is a network of volunteer
weather spotters with training in how to spot and report severe weather conditions.
SKYWARN spotters fill an important void for the NWS. Despite all its tools -- radar,
remote weather reporting stations, storm history -- the NWS can't actually "see" tornados,
wind damage, hail, road flooding, snow, or icy roads. It may know that such developments
are likely to occur, but it can't be certain if they really are occurring or where they are
occurring. Skywarn spotters provide "ground truth".
Although non-hams can also be SKYWARN spotters, hams have some special advantages
in weather reporting. Hams aren't tied to telephone systems that may fail. Also, many hams
have radios in their cars, so they can report developments instantly as they travel through
different areas. And by radio nets, the net coordinator can consolidate spotter reports to
give a single, concise report to a very busy NWS relay station / liaison.
You must be at least 16 years old, be able to observe weather (though no weather
instruments are required), and have access to a telephone or ham radio to make reports.
You must take a SKYWARN Spotter class, which is a 3 hour seminar that teaches you the
basics of how SKYWARN operates, how to spot severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, what
to report, how to report, and when. There is no cost for the class. Currently scheduled
classes are posted on the Central Indiana Skywarn webpage, or may be listed under
Skywarn Notes on this site. Shortly after completing the class you will be mailed a
SKYWARN certificate with your personal SKYWARN ID number that you will use when
reporting weather conditions.
Usually, severe weather "warnings" automatically activate SKYWARN. The NWS will broadcast severe weather warnings on the NOAA weather radio frequencies. In Boone County, these are 162.550 MHz or 162.475 MHz which is best heard in the central area of the county. You might have to dial in one of the frequencies for the NWS broadcast to find the one that's strongest in your area.
To learn about severe weather warnings, consider purchasing a Weather Radio (commonly
available at Radio Shack and other electronic stores). Weather Radios will sound an alarm
when they detect specially encoded severe weather alert tones in the NOAA broadcast. New
radios respond to the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) digital codes and older
radios respond to a 1050 Hz alerting tone. The Boone County SAME code is 018011. If you
live near a county line, you may want to put in additional county codes, as listed in the
NOAA table of County SAME codes.
Surrounding Counties SAME Codes are
Clinton County = 018023
Hamilton County = 018057
Hendricks County = 018063
Marion County = 018097
Montgomery County = 018107
After the NWS issues a severe weather "warning" or otherwise activates SKYWARN, the Boone County SKYWARN coordinator, or a substitute, acting as net control, will start to call SKYWARN reporting nets periodically on 146.500 MHz simplex.
During a SKYWARN net, the net control will ask for reports of ground conditions around
the county. Please make your reports as short and as relevant as possible, responding to the
net control's specific requests. Do not give unnecessary or gratuitous information. Note that
in some cases, a negative report, e.g. "no snow accumulations", may be as important as a
positive report.
Following the net, the net control will contact the County NWS liaison with the nets reports. The net control will announce the discontinuance of the nets when the NWS cancels the severe weather warning or otherwise announces the end of the SKYWARN activation. The frequency of 146.500 MHz will then be returned to normal operations.
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BCARA , Thanks !