Over the weekend I checked out a free storm spotter training class. I’ve always loved thunderstorms and then I was introduced to the movie Twister and I think that made me cross the line. I find storms so interesting and the fact that a tornado can appear out of nowhere and have so much force is just amazing. And here, I find myself sitting southern portion of Tornado Alley.
Last year we had a pretty bad storm and I remember the sirens going off and following the Texans example, going outside to “see what’s out there”. My neighbor at the time said, “What do we do?”. Seriously – you are asking the girl from Vermont. At least I knew the answer. The storm itself doesn’t scare me as much as the hail that arrives before the storm. I will be honest, it’s not fun and I got nervous. The same storm, it started coming down hard, baseball sized and it felt like someone was beating the roof and windows were going to bust. It’s surreal. It seems like each spring for the past couple years I will get a call from a friend and he will tell me where the tornado’s are as I fail to watch the news until they seem to be close to my house. Then when they get too close, the TV stations go out and well you’re shit out of luck my friends.
About a month ago the news happened to be on (it was sign) and they said – free storm spotter class. I’M THERE! I arrived to the class in Denton on Saturday. I was excited, I even felt a little bit like a nerd and was ready to see what they were going to teach me. Little did I know when I walked in, I would feel like a fish out of water. What I saw, to me, were all experienced storm spotters, people with radio frequency numbers on name tags, trucks parked outside with huge antenna’s. Fact of the matter – this is a free class to the general public.
The class was really interesting and quite frankly really important. This was just a basic class, three hours in length held by the National Weather Service. They taught us how the storm comes about, how it stays strong and how to identify wall clouds and supercells. More importantly, how to identify if a tornado is in the works, what direction it is headed and the other symptoms that go along with such a mass and powerful storm. Videos were also provided showing events from last year to give us a sense of “real life”. At the end of the informational session, two meteorologists came in and discussed the radar that they use and is available online, it’s preventative measures and how they gather information on the storms.
Call me crazy for being so fascinated but in all seriousness it’s nothing to joke about. If I had it my way I would just want to see them in open fields and not destroying homes. The storms are dangerous as we have all seen. The most important factor to take from the class is how you can help folks become prepared and how to prepare yourself. Weather channels can only do so much and when these storms pop up they rely heavily on the general public to help locate the storms, know what they are doing, where they are going and pass the information along to help prepare others for their arrivals.
The National Weather Service hosts numerous classes in North Texas and I’m sure throughout the south annually. Check out the schedule for the remainder of the year, here if you are interested in attending a class. Highly recommended.