StormReady is a nationwide community

preparedness program that uses a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle all types of severe weather, from

tornadoes to tsunamis. The program encourages communities to take a new, proactive approach to improving local hazardous weather operations by providing emergency managers with clear cut guidelines on how to improve their hazardous weather operations.

The following East Tennessee counties are StormReady:

 

Bradley

Hamilton

Jefferson

Knox

McMinn

Morgan

 

To be officially StormReady, a community must:

 

*Establish a 24 hour warning point and

emergency operations center.

 

*Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts to alert the

public.

 

*Create a system that monitors weather locally.

 

*Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars.

 

*Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters, and holding emergency exercises.

 

For more information on what is required for your community or county, contact Howard Waldron at (423) 586-8706 or George Mathews at (423) 586-6429

 

StormReady information is available on the

Internet website:

 www.nws.noaa.gov/stormready/.

 

 

 SKYWARN IN TENNESSEE

The Eyes and Ears of National Weather Service in the field.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

 

SKYWARN is the program developed by the National Weather Service to recruit and train storm spotters. SKYWARN spotters enhance the National Weather Service's storm detection capabilities by identifying and reporting potentially dangerous weather conditions. The SKYWARN program has become an invaluable link in the NWS

warning process.

 

Despite all of the sophisticated technology used in a modern NWS office, forecasters still rely on storm spotters.  Doppler radar may indicate that a storm may be producing large hail, damaging winds or even a tornado, but it cannot tell exactly what's happening on the ground underneath the storm.  Storm spotters, trained by NWS meteorologists, act as the eyes and ears of the NWS. Their reports, radar data and other information result in the most timely and accurate warnings possible.

 

SKYWARN spotters in Tennessee come from all walks of life – law enforcement, fire or emergency management agencies and citizens interested in helping their communities. A large number of storm spotters are amateur radio operators, who volunteer their time and equipment to help the NWS detect and track severe storms.  Amateur radio operators, or "hams", will frequently man radio equipment at the local NWS office, gathering reports from spotters in the field and relaying the data directly to NWS forecasters.  SKYWARN spotters are volunteers – they receive no compensation for their hard work. They do, however, have the satisfaction of knowing that their reports result in better warnings which save lives.  For more information on SKYWARN, or to schedule a storm

spotter class in your area, contact Howard Waldron at (423) 586-8706.