The class, held in partnership with the National Weather Service, will be from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Bioscience Auditorium at Iowa Central Community College, 1 Triton Circle.

The class is free and open to the public.

“It’s really open for anybody,” said Webster County Emergency Management Coordinator Dylan Hagen. “It’s an awareness thing. What to look for if there is a storm, how to report it, things the weather service is going to want to know.”

The 90-minute class will include a presentation from the National Weather Service. The focus is going to be more on the actual spotting and reporting of storms, rather than storm safety, Hagen explained.

Those in attendance will learn how to spot and report many different weather events, including tornadoes, wall clouds or funnel clouds, hail, damaging winds, flash flooding and heavy rain. Reporters will need to know things like the time and location of the event and its direction, if applicable. The NWS also encourages storm spotters to submit photos with their reports.

The NWS has an array of ways for storm spotters to report storms and weather events.

Reporting forms are available online at www.weather.gov/dmx/stormspotting. Storm spotters can also email dmx.spotterreport@noaa.gov or text 515-240-5515, with information and photos.

For those who have been through severe weather spotter training and belong to a spotter network, there is a telephone line to report at 1-800-SKYWARN.

Social media users can post to the @NWSDesMoines Facebook page or share on Twitter by using the hashtags #iawx, #nwsdmx or by tagging @NWSDesMoines directly.

Hagen said he thinks it’s important for members of the public to learn how to spot and report storms, especially with Iowa being located right in the middle of “Tornado Alley.”

“The more eyes, the better,” he said. “We can’t be everywhere at once and just having people out there that can assist us and the weather service with more accurate reports greatly helps us.”

For more information on the 2020 storm spotting class, email Hagen at ema@webstercountyia.org.

More information on reporting severe weather can be found at www.weather.gov/dmx/stormspotting.

Learn to be a storm spotter

What: Storm Spotters class

When: 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Bioscience Auditorium,

Iowa Central Community College, 1 Triton Circle

For more information: Email Dylan Hagen

at ema@webstercountyia.org