I took sometime to work on my SKYWARN training today. As an amateur radio operator and disaster volunteer, I am very interested in staying up to date on the latest training in SKYWARN. So, occasionally, I check to see if there is local SKYWARN training available.
In this effort, I came across this message on the NWS Norman website.
"For the past 30 years or more, spotter training has been conducted in live training sessions all across western and central Oklahoma, and western north Texas. Beginning in 2013, we are changing the training program to a mix of online training in the form of national and locally developed modules, along with regional training sessions."
While I thoroughly enjoy the live training sessions—where you able to get to know the actual forecasters in the area–the accessibility to online training is definitely a plus for those of us with unpredictable schedules. I have definitely benefited much from the FEMA training online.
The site NWS Norman links to is MetEd, a fabulous training site for meteorological subjects. While the courses offered are somewhat limited, based on the vast amount of opportunity that the site has–the SKYWARN courses are a powerful enough to begin or refresh your training as a SKYWARN weather spotter.
I definitely recommend browsing the site to discover more of the topics they have available for learning more about weather and the potential dangers present.