Mike Ryan of the National Weather Service talks with volunteers during a recent training class on weather spotting. Monday, May 8, 2023.
GREENFIELD — Sitting inside a conference room at Ninestar Connect on Monday evening, dozens of local residents listened intently as members of the National Weather Service (NWS) spoke to the crowd about storm spotter training.
Sam Lashley, a NWS warning coordinator meteorologist, and Mike Ryan, a senior meteorologist, conducted the two-hour session called Skywarn Weather Spotter Training. The class was designed to teach people what to look for when severe weather occurs and how to properly report the conditions to weather officials.
Properly trained storm spotters, Ryan said, are the eyes and ears for the NWS. The reports spotters make end up making a real difference in the warning process as storms roll though the state.
“This is not a storm chaser class, but trained spotters will help us make warning decisions,” Lashley said. “Our goal is to make sure everyone stays safe in bad weather, but also train people who are interested in what to look for whereever they are to allow them to be able to look and then identify what’s happening weather-wise and report that to us.”
Those reports can then help the NWS warn people about what’s coming their way. Some of the things the officials taught included identifying storm cloud features, looking for indicators such as flying debris, and watching the rain and trees to see how intense the storm is and which way the weather is moving.
“There are a lot of lookalikes when it comes to severe weather and tornadoes, and the general public can get fooled sometimes,” Lashley said. “The training here for these spotters is to help them better understand what to look for.”
For Ryan, he wanted to help those in the class be able to connect the information on cloud formation with what they’re seeing on radar.
“In this day and age, everyone has a smart phone and what we can do here is help them understand a little better what they are looking at and then apply that to the real-life cloud formations,” Ryan said.
Both NWS meteorologists say a good storm spotter can save lives. Ryan told the group when they call in information, they want spotters to be concise, and they want them to put together a timely spotter report.
“Tell us who it is, tell us what you saw, tell us where you are and tell us which way the storm is heading,” Ryan said. “While we’d love to discuss what they’ve seen, we need quick reports.”
Officials from the Hancock County Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) group sponsored the free class along with officials from the Hancock County Emergency Management (Homeland Security).
Joe Fitzgerald, deputy director of the HCEM, noted they try to hold this type of training class at least once a year. One of the things they wanted to make sure everyone in attendance and throughout the county knows about is the importance of having a weather radio and signing up for emergency information through the county’s smart 911 app.
“A class like this is just like exercise. The more knowledge you have, the more it goes into affect. Like muscle memory, it makes you aware, and the more classes a person can attend, the better,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald also wants families in the county to make sure they are prepared with a 72-hour storm safety kit complete with medication.
“That’s our main goal — to make sure you are 72 hours safe after a storm because, within 72 hours, things should be back up or we can get people help,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald noted, I-70 seems to be the weather line for this area, and it seems the county gets more than their fair share of severe storms.
“The bad weather either goes north or south, and I can tell you we just dodged a bullet this last batch of storms a couple of weeks ago,” Fitzgerald said. “We had some strong straight-line winds that took off the roof of one establishment there on U.S. 40, but the bad stuff, it just missed us.”
Officials from the NWS noted that it’s been nearly 50 years since an EF-5 tornado hit the state of Indiana and that most tornadoes, some 90% that develop in the state, are EF-0, 1 or 2.
“Some 6% are EF 3, 4, or 5, and these are the ones that cause death,” Ryan said.
Lashley said that while straight-line winds can cause major damage, and often do, the winds are very different from tornadoes and the damage they can cause.
“A tornado has rotation and uplift,” Lashley said. “When we go out, we’ll look at how the damage is oriented and while some people think a twisted tree means a tornado, that’s not always the case.”
Officials from the NWS say they work with emergency management teams from around the state each year to help prepare people for severe weather. While the storm spotter training did not offer any kind of certification, those who attended noted the idea was to pick up storm indicators and report them if need be to help prepare others who might need to take shelter.
“There is no certification here, but they are considered trained weather spotter volunteers,” Lashley said.
Hancock Amateur Radio Club Coordinator George Boaz attended the session along with many of the club members. He said it’s always good to hear new information from state officials about weather because Indiana weather constantly changes.
“You can never learn enough,” Boaz said.
That’s something the NWS officials agreed upon, saying severe weather can hit at any time at any point in the year and at any degree.
“It’s year-around anymore,” Ryan said. “We’ve seen some very big tornado outbreaks in the fall and in the winter, and the one they had in Kentucky a few years ago was in December.”
For more information on storm spotter training and Indiana weather, visit weather.gov.ind which will take people straight to the National Weather Service home page, which also has up-to-date weather information.
