Skywarn class turns residents into severe weather spotters
JARED FIELDS • PICAYUNE STAFF
BURNET — When it comes to severe weather in Burnet County, Jim Barho needs eyes on the sky to give as much warning to those in harm’s way as possible.
So every year, the county hosts a free Skywarn weather training class to teach people how to be the eyes and ears for the National Weather Service.
Paul Yura, the NWS warning coordination meteorologist, will lead the class 6:30-8:30 p.m. March 5 at the Burnet Community Center, 401 E. Jackson St.
The class is geared toward first responders and law enforcement types, but the general public is welcome, too.
Burnet County is mostly rural, so when severe weather is in the area, it’s important to have as many people as possible in the county reporting on what the radar can’t exactly see.
“The people who live there on ranches, or HAM radio operators, those are the folks (the NWS) rely on to get word out, to be the eyes and ears on the ground, to give us the advance warning we need to put out notices of any type of threat,” said Barho, the county’s emergency management coordinator.
Yura said the class will teach people exactly what to look for and what to tell meteorologists when severe weather is in the area.
“There are a lot of false reports on funnel clouds. We’ll touch on that and show some good pictures of things from underneath a thunderstorm,” Yura said.
The radar can give clues about what a weather system is doing, but a trained spotter provides the details the radar can’t give that might save lives.
“How big is the hail, is there a tornado on the ground, wind damage, how much rain is actually falling: Those are facts only people or an automated weather station can give us,” Yura said.
So if a severe thunderstorm is approaching from the west, as they typically do, trained spotters miles away provide key clues for people in the path of the storm.
“When people watch weather warnings, if it says the radar says this or says that, then they don’t seem to believe it. But if it says a trained weather spotter has spotted something, people will tend to seek shelter much quicker,” Yura said.
The program focuses on severe weather but has other functions, Yura said.
“There are a lot of smart ranchers who have been tracking rainfall totals for decades,” he said. “We’ll talk about that and the importance of sharing weather information. The sharing of rainfall totals lead to better warning when it comes to flash-flood warnings.”
The class is free, and no registration is required. For more, call the Burnet County Office of Emergency Management at (512) 750-0507.
jared@thepicayune.com