CLINTON TWP. (WWJ) – Weather can be unpredictable — especially in Michigan, and especially in the spring.
In Macomb County, they’re training citizen weather spotters.
“They actually act as our eyes and ears,” said Vicki Wolber, the Director of Emergency Management in Macomb County.
She says SKYWARN Spotter Training classes, held by the National Weather Service yearly to train volunteers on how to respond to severe weather, and what to look our for.
“Thunderstorm development, how thunderstorms work and operate,” Wolber said. “They can learn about even hail…is part of the class. They learn about the different sizes and how to do those measurements. They’ll learn differences between watches and warnings.”
Wolber told WWJ’s Brian Larsen that spotters become particularly important during tornado season.
“Obviously you have the ones that are kind of predicted, and the Weather Service is using their radar and all the calculations that they have,” she said. “From time to time we do have where a funnel cloud pops up. If there are trained SKYWARN spotters, those are the people we listen to first.”
SKYWARN class in Macomb County will be Saturday, March 28 at 10 a.m. and Wednesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. at the Macomb Intermediate School District (MISD), Main floor, room 100B, 44001 Garfield Road, Clinton Township.
Find more classes near you HERE.
Learn more about the SKYWARN program HERE.
