Weather Spotter Classes

By Keith County Management

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in North Platte, in coordination with county emergency managers, volunteer fire departments, and other local community organizations, offer storm spotter classes at several locations to prepare for severe weather season.

If you would like to assist your local community by becoming a volunteer storm spotter and reporting severe weather to the National Weather Service, or if you simply want to learn more about severe weather, consider attending one of our virtual classes. Classes are approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.

Attendees are taught the basics of thunderstorm development, storm structure, the features to look for, and where to find them. What, when and how to report information as well as basic severe weather safety are also covered.

We will also provide an Advanced Spotter Course this year where we will dig deeper into forecasting of a highly impactful severe “wind” event. We will put you in the “hot seat” as a warning forecaster and test your understanding of the storm spotter process. You do not need to attend the advanced training to be certified as a storm spotter.

Both classes will be presented in Ogallala.