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.

National Weather Service In Fort Worth: Sounding The Alarm For North Texas

Submitted by wd5m on Wed, 2013-05-22 10:42

National Weather Service In Fort Worth: Sounding The Alarm For North Texas by SHELLEY KOFLER and KERA News for North Texas

The story link above describes where members of our #SKYWARN radio desk team can be found during weather events in# North Texas. As events intensify and expand across north Texas, we may have up to four to six radio operators monitoring radio repeaters and IRLP or EchoLink linked radio systems for SKYWARN "ground truth" weather reports. We then relay the severe or significant information to NWS warning forecasters directly in front of us across the desk wall. Well trained public SKYWARN volunteers who observe, identify and report severe weather details are the source of our information, and vital to this warning process.

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2012 SKYWARN® Recognition Day

Submitted by wd5m on Tue, 2012-11-06 13:51
NWS Special EventNWS Special Event

2012 SKYWARN® Recognition Day

Fort Worth NWS CWA The 2012 SKYWARN® Recognition Day 24 hour event is active November 30, 18:00 (6PM) until Saturday, December 1st, 18:00 (6 PM) CST

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During the day, SKYWARN radio operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world. Information regarding SKYWARN Recognition Day is updated at hamradio.noaa.gov, and for the Fort Worth office at wx5fwd.org.

As in previous years, North Texas SKYWARN Amateur Radio spotters are encouraged to participate in SKYWARN Recognition Day, and make radio contacts with NWS offices and other SKYWARN ham radio spotter groups. 

SKYWARN volunteers may visit the NWS Saturday. This is a special invitation to  volunteers in counties where the NWS has limited or no spotter contacts.  See

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$10 million advanced radar system lands in North Texas

Submitted by wd5m on Mon, 2012-10-29 16:12

ARLINGTON -- Looking like a giant half of an egg dropping from the sky, the first piece of a $10 million network of faster, more precise weather radar was gently helicoptered into a new nest at UT Arlington on Sunday morning.

Read more here: www.star-telegram.com/2012/10/28/4370245/advanced-radar-system-lands-in.html

Severe Weather Preparedness Week, What We’re Doing to Prepare

Submitted by wd5m on Sun, 2012-04-22 00:01

Today marks the start of the first ever National Severe Weather Preparedness Week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently partnered to designate April 22-28, 2012, as National Severe Weather Preparedness Week, and is calling upon all Americans, in every area of the country, to Be a Force of Nature. [Organization] is committing to Being a Force of Nature and pledging to know our risk, take action, and be an example for our families and community by sharing the steps we took. Because we live in an area prone to [identify risk – tornadoes, flash floods, severe thunderstorms] the recent severe weather and tornado outbreaks reminded us that this weather can strike anywhere and at any time.

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Bill Bunting is Moving

Submitted by wd5m on Fri, 2012-03-30 12:15
Bill Bunting (N5SAL), Meteorologist-In-Charge, Fort Worth NWS, has accepted a new position. Starting early April he will be the new Operations Branch Chief at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma. The WX5FWD NWS SKYWARN Team volunteers joined Bill and his wife Janice for dinner Thursday evening. A photo of the plaque presented to Bill and Janice is attached below. Please join us in wishing Bill and Janice congratulations, thanks and good luck in the new position.
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