Morgan County OEM, National Weather Service Offer Free Weather-Spotter Training in Jacksonville

A free SKYWARN weather-spotter training session hosted by the Jacksonville-Morgan County Office of Emergency Management and the National Weather Service took place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday in the auditorium of Jacksonville High School, 1211 N. Diamond St.

The two-hour session focused on teaching participants how to identify and report severe weather. NWS meteorologists depend on real-time reports from trained spotters to know exactly what is occurring on the ground under a storm, making community-level training a direct link between local observers and the forecasters who issue watches and warnings.

The training was suited for anyone curious about severe weather, described as appropriate for those new to weather-spotting and those seeking a refresher. SKYWARN is a volunteer program with between 350,000 and 400,000 trained severe weather spotters nationwide, and sessions like the one in Jacksonville are among the primary pathways for residents to join that network. The NWS trains people to identify severe storms and tornadoes and report them via organized communications networks, primarily local and county emergency management, law enforcement and amateur radio.

The session was free. No registration information or presenter names were available ahead of the event. For questions about future SKYWARN training opportunities in central Illinois, the National Weather Service office in Lincoln can be reached at 217-732-3089 or at nws.lincoln@noaa.gov.