The WX5FWD SKYWARN™ team are volunteer radio operator liaisons for the Fort Worth National Weather Service (NWS) North Texas SKYWARN™ Spotters. During SKYWARN events, you are reporting information to our team and the NWS warning forecasters. Three goals of a storm spotter are to safely observe, identify and report conditions.

Weather spotters provide what's called "ground truth" to the National Weather Service and emergency weather management. Spotters are needed because, while radar is very good at helping the National Weather Service see what's going on in the upper atmosphere, it's unable to detect what's actually happening on the ground because of the curvature of the Earth. Knowing the "ground truth" about a weather event from the location can be the deciding factor to issue a warning.

NWS Spotter Radio Desk Staffing with COVID-19

Submitted by wd5m on Tue, 2020-03-17 19:42

The National Weather Service, and our spotter radio desk team, are weighing risks versus benefit of staffing the NWS Spotter radio desk with the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is possible we may not place radio desk volunteers at the NWS. If that occurs, our radio volunteers will make efforts to monitor affected areas with home radio stations, and via linked radio systems, to relay spotter reports to the NWS. In the event spotters are unable to reach NWS radio desk operators, please use other means to relay your spotter reports to the NWS as outlined in spotter training. These include the following methods:

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2020 NWS Online SKYWARN Classes

Submitted by wd5m on Mon, 2020-03-16 17:37
2020 NWS Online SKYWARN Classes

From: National Weather Service, Fort Worth
Date: Monday, 16 March 2020 16:25 CDT

NWS Fort Worth will be hosting 3 ONLINE SKYWARN Classes! These classes are open to all North and Central Texas residents. Due to participant limitations, please register for only one class.

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Severe Weather Preparedness

Submitted by wd5m on Fri, 2020-03-06 14:18
Severe Weather Preparedness

This message comes from Jennifer Dunn - Warning Coordination Meteorologist National Weather Service Fort Worth, TX

Help us spread preparedness tips for the upcoming severe weather season.

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NWS Special Event 2019 SKYWARN® Recognition Day

Submitted by wd5m on Thu, 2019-11-14 08:37
NWS Special EventNWS Special Event

2019 SKYWARN® Recognition Day

Fort Worth NWS CWA The 2019 SKYWARN® Recognition Day event is from Friday evening, December 6th 18:00 (6PM) CST until Saturday December 7th 18:00 (6PM) CST. Or in UTC time December 7, 2019, from 00:00 to 24:00 UTC.

SKYWARN™ Recognition Day (SRD) will mark its 20th anniversary on December 7, 0000 to 2400 UTC. This is the day each year when radio amateurs operate from National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices across the country, celebrating the long relationship between the amateur radio community and the National Weather Service SKYWARN™ program. The purpose of the event is to recognize amateur radio operators for the vital public service they perform during times of severe weather and to strengthen the bond between radio amateurs and their local NWS offices.

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Information for Storm Spotters

Submitted by wd5m on Fri, 2019-04-05 21:28

SKYWARN Storm Spotters should attend the annual training sessions provided by National Weather Service (NWS). Those sessions give spotters the basic information they need to safely and effectively provide severe weather reports. You are considered a trained spotter by attending a training session. Attending annually also gives you updates on the latest training information. Safety is the primary concern of the training.

If you missed the scheduled training sessions, there is spotter reference material and training on the Internet. This material is useful to the trained spotter as well.

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