Happy Monday! The warmer temperatures of spring will also come with the return of thunderstorms to our corner of the Commonwealth. We’ll likely have to deal with some of those storms becoming severe over the next few months. You have the opportunity to help us and the National Weather Service protect the public!
The NWS office in Blacksburg is hosting a virtual storm spotter training class next Monday night. It’s happening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. and you can register for the webinar here.
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You might be asking: why should I help you guys do your job? Well, we need storm spotters to help us cover severe weather for a few reasons.
Having more eyes on storms is always a good thing, and trained storm spotters have the ability to alert their neighbors to approaching severe weather.
Doppler radar is a great tool that we use during every severe weather event, but it does have its limitations (especially in mountainous terrains like we have in our area). Storm spotters help fill in the gaps.
Photos and videos from storm spotters in the field can help the NWS trigger severe thunderstorm and/or tornado warnings. We saw this in action back in August when Kayleigh Addington sent a video of what she was seeing in Haymakertown to NWS Blacksburg. Shortly after, meteorologists issued a tornado warning for Botetourt and Rockbridge Counties.
Finally, storm spotter reports can help us verify severe weather warnings after the event. The aforementioned Botetourt tornado was verified as an EF-0 after a storm survey, but the NWS meteorologists would not have known where to check for damage if not for trained storm spotters telling them where to look.
The best part about this class? It’s free and you don’t even have to leave your couch! Consider being a part of it, because you’ll be helping us save lives from dangerous weather.
Switching gears to the forecast, the clock “springs forward” this weekend but the temperatures will do the same thing first! We’re going 15 to 20 degrees above-average Wednesday through Friday. Your Local Weather Authority meteorologist Chris Michaels is tracking the spring-like changes in our daily forecast article.
You can always get specific forecast details for your zone, whether it’s the Roanoke Valley, Lynchburg area, the New River Valley or elsewhere around Southwest and Central Virginia, anytime at WSLS.com/weather. Know your zone!
In case you missed it, we’re posting great weather and science content on WSLS.com. Here are a few links from the past week to check out:
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-- Justin McKee