Weather spotter training coming to Fort Dodge

Iowa Central to host National Weather Service

Those interested in learning how to spot severe weather and report it back to officials will have the opportunity to do so Tuesday at a weather spotter training session at Iowa Central Community College.

The training, a collaborative effort between the National Weather Service and Webster County Emergency Management, will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the BioScience and Health Sciences Building.

Scott Forbes, Webster County emergency management coordinator, said this event is held in Fort Dodge every year.

The event is open to the public and no preregistration is required.

"The in-person spotter presentation includes a multimedia presentation containing information about identifying and reporting severe weather, spotter safety, severe weather climatology in Iowa, thunderstorm structure and threats and more," Forbes said.

Meteorologists from the National Weather Service in Des Moines will serve as instructors.

Forbes said weather spotters serve multiple roles.

"It's a proactive approach to spotting before the storms enter our county, and it's vital to the warning process," he said.

After someone attends the class, they are then eligible to become a certified weather spotter.

Forbes said they can do that by going online or by sending their applications to the National Weather Service in Des Moines.

He added there are many weather events spotters are trained to look for.

"Strong winds or damage, winds 50 miles per hour or greater, tree or structure damage, large hail, wall clouds and funnel clouds, tornados and flash flooding," Forbes said. "To report this, there's a number they can call. There's also texting where they can send pictures and video and there's also Twitter and Facebook."

In addition to the spotter training, Forbes also encouraged Webster County residents to sign up online for Webster County Alerts, a system that sends texts to phones when severe weather is happening.

"They can sign up for whatever weather alerts they want for whatever numbers they enter," he said.

That can be accessed at webstercountyia.org or by visiting the Webster County Emergency Management Agency's Facebook page.

Forbes said weather spotters are important in their role of helping the National Weather Service.

"They're actually the eyes to verifying what's on the radar, what the Weather Service is looking at," he said. "By having spotters, that gives a heads-up and more advanced approach for a warning for the public."

Besides Webster County's training, there are three other area weather spotter trainings scheduled.

Sac County will host one at the Sac Community Center, in Sac City, on March 14.

Calhoun County will host one at the Lohrville Fire Station on April 11.

And Kossuth and Humboldt counties will host spotter training at the Water's Edge Nature Center, in Algona, on April 13.