SKYWARN Net Control operators perform one of the most important roles, putting their radio skills to work extracting ground-truth weather reports, from both experienced SKYWARN spotters and regular ham radio operators, during severe weather events. But what happens when the reports stop coming in? Did the storm pass? Is the repeater in that area just not busy that time of day? Is the weather not severe enough? Either of these scenarios could be possible, but how do you know for sure? Here’s some tips to help you find out:
Monitoring weather radar can tell you where severe weather may be occurring. Be sure to keep an eye on the radar and make sure you’re calling for reports in the appropriate area. As the storm moves, follow it, even if that means moving to another repeater. Also, be specific about the nature of the storm that is occurring and the types of reports you are seeking. Also be aware of new warnings or updates to existing ones, as these can be indicators of how the storm is developing.
Another tool that is helpful is to listen to a scanner. Usually, the earliest reports of trees and wires down, blocked roads, and washouts, occur over the public safety channels as calls come in for police, fire and EMS. If you listen close enough to pick out street names and towns, this will give you an indication of exactly where severe weather is happening, and where it might be going. Focus your call-ups on those areas and you’re likely to get confirming reports.
If the storm is occurring further away, you can monitor live feeds online. Broadcastify.com is a good source for monitoring public safety feeds. The basic ability to listen to live feeds, which can be filtered by state, county, and city, is free, but additional features such as access to archival recordings, is only available to subscribers. If, for example, a tornado passed through an area and you didn’t get any live reports during the event, you could review the recordings to see if anything was missed.
Time of day matters as well. Most on-air activity occurs during commuting hours and evenings, but weather can happen anytime. If severe weather passes through late at night or overnight, you’ll probably have a hard time getting any reports, but don’t be discouraged. Sometimes, the best reports come during a morning commute, when people travelling to work encounter storm damage that wasn’t noticed the night before. These reports, despite coming in several hours after a storm, are valuable to NWS Forecasters so they can confirm a warning.
Sometimes Net Control Operators have to get creative to gather reports, but it’s worth the effort. The information that we relay to the National Weather Service helps forecasters determine when to issue, update, and confirm watches and warnings, which can save lives.
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