# Presentation: 944040

## Skywarn Basic Spotter Training

***National Weather Service  Wilmington NC***

**Notes:**
Welcome to the online National Weather Service (NWS) Skywarn Spotter Training. This version of the course has been slightly customized to be a part of the NWS Wilmington’s StormReady program for schools. This course should take about 30 minutes to complete.

## Objectives:

**Notes:**
Some of the objectives of this course are listed above. First will come a brief overview of the NWS, describing who we are and what we do. We will also discuss the StormReady program and how NWS Wilmington has tailored the program to suit schools in the area. The course will then shift to things more meteorological, seeking to increase your basic literacy in NWS terminology and then how to identify possible hazards associated with convective (thunderstorm type) weather. The course will terminate with some guidelines for passing along weather information to the NWS.

## Slide 3

**Notes:**
The National Weather Service is a federal agency, housed under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is further nested under the Department of Commerce. In addition to issuing a wide array of public, marine, fire weather, and haz-mat forecasts, the NWS maintains a 24 hour-a-day, 365 day-a-year weather watch for hazardous weather. Weather hazards are disseminated to the public in real time via watches, warnings, and advisories. 

## Why We’re Here

***A Typical Year Brings:****** ***
- 7 Hurricanes
- 1,000 Tornadoes
- 5,000 Floods
- 10,000 Violent Thunderstorms
- Droughts/Heatwaves
- Snowstorms/Blizzards

***America Experiences More Bad Weather Than Any Other Nation in the World***

**Notes:**
Each year there are more instances of life-threatening weather in the United States than any other place in the world, necessitating such an expansive forecasting and warning infrastructure. These hazards range from hurricanes to tornadoes, flooding, heat waves, and snowstorms. Some of these hazardous weather events are more common than others depending on which part of the country you live.

## Reason for today’s talk:

**Storm Ready School Requirements:**
- NOAA Weather Radio in front office of school.
- Backup Weather Information Source (Weather Channel, Internet, etc.)
- Identify Tornado Shelter Areas
- Twice-Annual Tornado Drills
**Spotter Training for at least 10 staff members (including principal) Re-training recommended every 3 years**
- Access and post Hazardous Weather Outlook (HWO) twice a day
- Develop a Severe Weather Plan (SWEP)
- Lightning Safety Training, especially for PE teachers/coaches. Bus driver weather safety training
- Weather Equipment (optional) at school  E.g.: weather station, lightning detector

**Notes:**
The training that you are currently taking is one of the requirements for the NWS StormReady for schools program. StormReady is a NWS program that started in 1999, setting the guidelines for hazardous weather communication and preparations at the community, city, or county level. A StormReady supporter is any smaller facility (nuclear power plants, hospitals, etc.) that supports and promotes the pinciples and guidelines of the StormReady program. The Wilmington, NC office of the NWS has specially tailored this program towards schools. 

## It’s only a matter of time...be prepared!

**Tornado damage to a classroom in Xenia, Ohio**

**It’s only a matter of time...be prepared!**

**Notes:**
Severe weather can occur at any time and any place, schools are no exception. This photo shows what happened to a (vacant) school in Ohio that was struck by a tornado. Although the structure of the building held intact, the flying glass and debris would have resulted in numerous severe injuries to any students and faculty that had been inside. 

## Storm Readiness Saves Lives!

**An interior section of the same Ohio school.  Note the minimal damage.**

**Storm Readiness Saves Lives!**

**Notes:**
This photo shows a hallway from the same school as in the previous slide. Since it is an interior part of the building, the damage and risk of injury is greatly reduced. This exemplifies two aspects of the StormReady for schools program; closely monitoring NWS products and the biannual conducting of tornado drills. 

## It can happen close to home!

**   ****Pleasant Hill Elementary School, Georgetown County, SC**

**Notes:**
A closer look to home shows that a school in Georgetown County, South Carolina had a close call with a tornado. 

## weather.gov

**weather.gov**

- click here

**Notes:**
The next few slides will step you through the simple process of how to get forecasts, watches and warnings, and the Hazardous Weather Outlook from you local (in this case, Wilmington, NC) NWS forecast office. The starting point is weather.gov, which is the website for the NWS at the national level. Clicking anywhere on the national map will then take you to the local office’s own website. 

## weather.gov/ilm

- click here

**Notes:**
The next few slides will step you through the simple process of how to get forecasts, watches and warnings, and the Hazardous Weather Outlook from you local (in this case, Wilmington, NC) NWS forecast office. The starting point is weather.gov, which is the website for the NWS at the national level. Clicking anywhere on the national map will then take you to the local office’s own website. 

## The Spotter’s Role

- Spotters provide ground truth that:

-  Aids in the warning decision
-  Adds value to the warning or statement
-  Motivates people in the path of the storm to take shelter

- You see what the technology cannot!

**Notes:**
Because of the limitations of technology such as satellite and radar, the NWS has trained thousands of volunteers across the county to provide ground truth for what the radar, satellite, and surface observation stations may be missing. Spotters have played a critical role in forecast and warning decisions for years and will continue to do so for many years to come. 

## Fundamental Definitions

- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air pendant from a thunderstorm and *in contact with the ground*

- Downburst
- A strong thunderstorm downdraft with an outrush of damaging wind at the ground

- Funnel Cloud
- A rotating, funnel-shaped cloud extending from a thunderstorm base

**Notes:**
It’s important to note that a tornado need not have a visible funnel extending to the ground; the key is whether the circulation at ground level is strong enough to cause damage. 

## Overview of the Warning Process

** **

**Notes:**
Ideally, before a Watch is even issued, the National Weather Service will issue an Outlook (more than 24 hours notice) for an expected significant event such as a winter storm or severe weather outbreak. The area involved will be large due to the level of uncertainty and the actual timing and type of weather may be in question as well. However, these factors will all be discussed in the text of the Outlook product. The above animation shows the transition from Outlook to Watch to Warning and how the areas affected and timing windows get smaller and more specific.

## Hazardous Weather Outlook

***Issued between 4 AM and 6 AM***
***Available on NWS Wilmington web page***
***(www.weather.gov/ilm)***
***Discussion provides timing, location, coverage, probability and expected severity of weather***

- ALERT for the potential of hazardous weather conditions over the next 7 days.

**Notes:**
A specific product called the Hazardous Weather Outlook is issued by the NWS early each morning regardless of how active or quiet the weather is supposed to be. Earlier in this presentation we showed where on the Internet this product can be viewed. As part of being a StormReady School this product must be reviewed twice a day by a faculty member or receptionist, typically someone in one of the school’s front offices.  In the event of hazardous weather being expected (any time within the next 7 days) this product will either discuss the possible hazard itself or indicate how and where to get additional information. 

## How to Make a Thunderstorm

*Instability*

**Notes:**
The most important distinguishing feature of a thunderstorm is that it represents a rare part of the atmosphere where vertical (as opposed to horizontal...i.e. wind) motion is taking place. The first ingredient needed to make vertical motion is instability, a condition where temperature decreases rapidly with height. Since warm air weighs less than cold air, the lower level warm air begins to rise. Usually this motion is quite gentle...

## How to Make a Thunderstorm

*Lift*

- Bay Breeze

- Mountains

**Notes:**
Some triggering mechanisms can act to enhance this otherwise gentle upward motion. A few examples are listed above. 

## Thunderstorm Life Cycle

- 0-20 minutes: Flat based clouds...all air is rising

**Notes:**
Given enough rising motion, a cloud forms. This puffy (cumulus) cloud almost always contains a layer that is below freezing so some ice crystals are mixed in with the tiny water droplets that make up the cloud. 

## Thunderstorm Life Cycle

- Anvil

- Updraft

- Downdraft

- 20-40 minutes: updraft and downdraft co-exist

**Notes:**
Given enough instability and lift, the vertical motion can quickly accelerate. The updraft can reach heights of 40,000 feet or more. At such levels there is enough cold air to have plentiful ice in the top of the storm. This helps lead to a buildup of static electricity and eventually lightning. Heavy rain also becomes likely as the air racing upward continues to cool, making it less and less able to hold the moisture that it contains. Hail also becomes possible in the stronger storm cells. This phase can be reached in as little as 20-40 minutes (from a start of a nearly blue sky!).

## Thunderstorm Life Cycle

- 40-60 minutes: all downdraft

- All anvil with rain.

**Notes:**
Eventually gravity wins out and all of the moisture (water, ice, or both) is dragged downward out of the cloud to the Earth. All of this downward motion “kills” the updraft that originally yielded the thunderstorm and the cell begins to dissipate. 

## Thunderstorms and Lightning

- ● All thunderstorms contain lightning

- ● diameter of 5 to 20 miles across, 10 miles tall

- ● can occur any time of the day & any time of the year

- ● most common from 1 and 9 pm during the warm months

**Notes:**
Lightning represents the most common hazard associated with a thunderstorm. A single storm can produce anywhere from just one to thousands of lightning strikes. Any one lightning strike can be deadly. Since a storm may produce thousands of strikes without incident, or just one strike that proves fatal, there is no warning criteria for lightning. 

## Lightning Facts

_**Lightning**_**:**
**Temperature:****	****	**
- 50,000 F
**Voltage:**
- 1 million-1billion volts
**Electric Current:**
- 100,000 amps
**Average Annual Deaths:**
- 100

_**Comparison**_**:**
**Temperature:**
- Sun’s Surface: 11,000 F
**Voltage:**
- Wall Outlet: 120 volts
**Electric Current:**
- Usually fatal: 1 amp
**Average Annual Deaths:**
- Tornadoes: 40-50

**Notes:**
Here are a few quick facts about lightning to help underscore its danger. 

## Large Hail

- “That never happens here!”

**Notes:**
Large hail is also an underrated thunderstorm hazard. Granted, it is usually  more associated with property damage than loss of life, it’s ability to shatter windows still poses an injury threat.  The quote at the bottom of the screen is something that meteorologists in this area often hear. “That never happens here!”

## Hail Damage – Florence, SC - May 25, 2000 (softball to grapefruit size hail)

**So much for “That never happens here”!**

**Notes:**
It does happen here! Here is a picture of what happed to a house’s siding and windows when hail the size of grapefruits was falling out of the sky.

## Microburst

**Microburst**

- Formation

- Impact - Close View

**Notes:**
In the dissipating phase of a thunderstorm (when gravity starts to win out by dragging all of the rain and possibly ice downwards) sometimes some dry air from the mid levels of the atmosphere gets sucked into the storm downdraft. This causes enhanced cooling and the downdraft accelerates. A downburst is the term for this blast of straight-down wind. Once it hits the ground it spreads out evenly and moves away from the point of impact in all directions. 

## Microburst damage May 23, 2003

- Development between Ogden and Murrayville (New Hanover County)

**Notes:**
The damage associated with a strong downburst can rival that of a tornado. Visual clues in the damage can be noted by trained NWS storm survey teams as to whether the damage was caused by a downburst or tornado.

## Weak Tornadoes

- Fujita Scale: F0 & F1

- ● 75% of NC/SC tornadoes

- ● Approximately 5% of tornado deaths

- ● Wind speed 60-115 mph

- ● May last 10 minutes or less, and have a path of 3 miles or less

**Notes:**
Tornado strength is rated on a five point system, just like hurricanes.  Note that a vast majority of tornadoes in the Carolinas fall into the weaker categories. 

## Strong Tornadoes

- Fujita Scale: F2 & F3

- ● 23% of NC/SC tornadoes

- ● Approximately 25% of tornado deaths

- ● Wind speed 110-205 mph

- ● May last 20 minutes or longer, and have a path of 15+ miles

**Notes:**
Stronger tornadoes are more rare, but are responsible for a greater amount of deaths. 

## Violent Tornadoes

- Fujita Scale: F4 & F5

- ● 2% of NC/SC tornadoes

- ● Approximately 70% of tornado deaths

- ● Wind speed over 200 mph

- ● May last an hour or longer, and have a path of 50+ miles

**Notes:**
Violent tornadoes are extremely rare but are responsible for a vast majority of fatalities. 

## Tornado Safety - Indoors

- ● Move to a basement

- ● Stay away from windows and close doors

- ● Move to an interior room such as a closet or bathroom

- ● Get in the bath tub

- ● In large buildings, such as schools, move to an interior hallway (no windows)

- ● Get in the protective position (as shown in the pictures)

**Notes:**
The importance of tornado drills can not be overstated.  The main point to remember is to get as close to the middle of the building you’re in. This keeps you farthest from exterior wall and windows, which are most prone to fail.

## Tornado look-alikes: Ragged Roll Cloud

**Notes:**
We now wish to show a few tornado “look-alikes”. Although these features can be quite ominous looking and are often indicative of a strong thunderstorm, it is important for a trained spotter to understand that they are not in fact tornadoes. This example shows the leading edge of a downburst. There may be a horizontal rotation (arrows) along the leading edge. This is right where the winds pick up. Horizontal rotation is not usually associated with a tornado, which is a vertical rotation. 

## Tornado look-alikes: Wall Cloud

**E**

**W**

**Precipitation**

**downdraft is**

**to the north**

*Not a tornado, but a tornado precursor, usually seen on rear flank of a thunderstorm*

**Notes:**
A strong thunderstorm can have a large vertical rotation, however. Although this is not the tornado it is often a precursor of one. A wall cloud appears as a lowering in the base of the thunderstorm, usually on the south side. Views in the Carolinas should not be expected to be this good since heavy rain would be likely occurring.

## Very frequently mistaken for a tornado

- _Very_ frequently mistaken for a tornado

- Tornado look-alikes: Rain Shafts

**Notes:**
A narrow but intense downdraft can lead to a narrow channel of heavy rain. From afar it can take on the tubular appearance of a funnel. Rain shafts can be very deceptive, and lead to incorrect tornado reports.  Look for rotation! No rotation, no tornado!

## Is this a tornado, funnel cloud or look-alike?

- The debris cloud indicates the circulation aloft does indeed reach the ground.  This is a tornado!

**Notes:**
Quiz time! Did you get it right?

## Flooding

- This is Fredericksburg, VA in September 2000. This flood developed in less than 1⁄2 hour from a stationary thunderstorm.

**Flooding**

- ● Flooding develops quickly, typically as a result of poor drainage along the roadways

- ● Flooding often occurs at night when the dangers are harder to recognize

- ● 50% of fatalities are people in cars who have driven into flood waters

**Notes:**
The most underrated thunderstorm hazard of all is flooding. Thunderstorms can quickly produce inches of rain that can lead to running water across roadways. Running water only needs to be halfway up the tire of most vehicles to make it buoyant and lead to a life threatening situation.

## Poor decisions lead to unnecessary risks!

**Notes:**
Many flooding fatalities are the result of poor decision-making. 

## Estimating wind speed

**Estimating wind speed**

- 25-31 mph - large branches in motion
- 32-38 mph – whole trees in motion
- 39-54 mph – twigs break off, wind impedes walking
- 55-72 mph – damage to chimneys and TV antennas, large branches broken and some trees uprooted
- 73-112 mph – removes shingles, windows broken, trailer houses overturned, trees uprooted
- 113+ mph – roofs torn off, weak buildings and trailer houses destroyed, large trees uprooted

**Copyright Mike Umscheid**

- Estimating Wind Speed

**Notes:**
Most weather spotters are given a handout containing this chart; a visual aid for estimating wind speed. 

## What do you report?

***Tornado or Funnel Cloud, waterspouts***
*** ******Wall Cloud (rotation?)***
*** ******Hail – try to relate to a coin size***
*** ******Wind Damage***
*** ******Significant Flooding***

*If it matters to you, it matters to us!*

**Notes:**
When a spotter calls in weather information, here is a basic list of facts they will be expected to have. Not all of the facts are required, and there is no wrong reason to call. The bottom line sums it up well in that if the weather is significant enough for you to debate calling us, it is probably something we need to know about. For example, if a thunderstorm was bringing 40 mph wind to your location you may be tempted to call even though a storm is not considered severe until winds reach 58 mph. However, a NWS meteorologist may see on radar that you are 10 miles removed from the strongest part of the storm and may start contemplating a warning based upon your report!

## How do you report?

***Who ?***
***What ?***
***When ?***
***Where (direction/distance from a city)?***
***Movement (if you can tell)?***

- Be ready to answer the following questions

**Notes:**
Look after your own safety first, then call us when it is safe to do so. If you’re not calling as the event is happening or immediately after, it’s important that we know when it actually happened.  If you’re in one of our urban areas (Wilmington, Myrtle Beach), please reference your location to a major intersection.  

## Get your certificate

- Mark Bacon Mark.Bacon@noaa.gov

- Steven Pfaff Steven.Pfaff@noaa.gov

- (910)-762-4289

- Contact Information

- Click

- _HERE_

- to get your certificate of completion

**Notes:**
Thank you for your time. Here is some contact information for individuals involved with the StormReady for Schools program. Any comments or questions are more than welcome! Be sure to fill out the form for your training certificate when finished.