[WARC] NWS Storm Spotter Training Last Evening

[Len Litvan]

There was a good Storm Spotter training session in St. Charles yesterday 
evening.  It was led by Steve Thompson, who was assisted by a young 
lady, Jessica, from the La Crosse NWS office.  There was a very good 
turnout--maybe as many as 100 participants.

Here are some highlight:

The very basics for preparation when a threat may be near:

Try to understand -
 - What is the nature of the main threat.
 - When is it going to happen.
 - Where is it going to happen.

A very helpful web site for learning some of the above information is 
the NWS Convective (thunderstorm) Outlook, which has been fairly 
accurate:  http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/ .  It is updated 
daily at 5:00AM and updated periodically during the day during dynamic 
events, so it pays to check it during the course of the day.

 - On the these outlooks, if you are in an area indicated as High or 
Moderate, be prepared to deploy.

Steve said that good rule of thumb is that if an event is within two 
counties of your location, plan for and think seriously about 
deploying.  Winona County Emergency Management Office will call the 
official deployments.  As a matter of policy, they will not call 
spotters out at night because of spotter safety risks.

June is the most active month for severe storms and tornadoes in the NWS 
La Crosse area of responsibility, followed closely by July and May.  The 
most serious threat in Winona County is flash flooding.  The county as a 
unique position in MN in that it leads all counties in flash flood events.

Winona County Emergency Management prefers amateurs to report severe 
weather observations by radio if possible.  Otherwise, the phone number 
to use is (507) 457-6351.

There is a new criteria for reporting hail--one inch diameter (the size 
of a quarter) or larger.

Bob Bilder reported that here will be a tornado event simulation on 
April 23 this year.  No further information was passed on.

Sincerely & 73,
Len  KC0RSX