As of June 1st, the National Weather Service in Amarillo held 41 Skywarn training sessions and trained 1,071 spotters for the 2004 severe weather season. This is the most Skywarn training sessions ever held across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles in one season and the greatest number of spotters trained in one season. The Amarillo NWS began training area spotters on February 10, 2004 and the training continued through May.

Warning Coordination Meteorologist Steve Drillette says that the positive response and interest was higher than usual. “Many people who took the training spread the word to other communities and organizations. People are still calling me wanting to know if they can be trained to become storm spotters”.

The success of the course can be attributed in a large part due to the efforts of Amarillo NWS forecaster Mark Fox. “Mark did most of the work in putting this years program together”, said Steve Drillette. “Some of the information was new, but much of the basic information was just presented in a different and apparently better way”. An offshoot of the Skywarn sessions were the many severe weather safety presentations that were requested by individuals who took the training. Several spotters who work for TXDOT, Xcel Energy, area gas plants, or other companies, requested that the Amarillo NWS provide severe weather safety training for their employees.

In addition to the improved Skywarn program, spotters were also provided with a spotter identification card this year. Each spotter was provided a “spotter ID number” to be used when they contact the NWS with a storm report or request information. “It has been helpful in determining where our reports are coming from, which spotter groups are more active, and whether the report came from a trained spotter or the general public, said Steve Drillette. The spotters also seemed to like the idea”.

Listed below are the groups who were trained as 2004 Skywarn Storm Spotters.