In most years, thunderstorms, tornadoes and lightning caused hundreds of injuries and deaths and billions in property and crop damages. To obtain critical weather information, the National Weather Service (NWS) established SKY-WARN® with partner organizations. SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with between 350,000 and 400,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volun-teers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service. 

Although SKYWARN® spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the main responsibility of a SKYWARN® spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms. In an average year, the the United States experiences more than 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes. NWS encourages anyone with an interest in public service to join the SKYWARN® program. Volunteers include police and fire personnel, dis-patchers, EMS workers, public utility workers and other concerned private citi-zens. Individuals affiliated with hospitals, schools, churches and nursing homes or who have a responsibility for protecting others are also encouraged to be-come a spotter. In this free 2 hour training, you will learn: 

• Basics of thunderstorm development 

• Fundamentals of storm structure 

• Identifying potential severe weather features 

• Information to report 

• How to report information 

• Basic severe weather safety