Become an official Volunteer Weather Spotter for the National Weather Service

The city of Kyle and the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office invite anyone with a passion or interest in weather to join us for a Basic SKYWARN severe weather training course on Thursday, Jan. 25 from 6-8PM at the Kyle Public Safety Center, 1700 Kohlers Crossing.

SKYWARN severe weather training offers citizens, first responders, emergency management, amateur radio operators, and volunteer organizations the opportunity to learn about severe weather information specific to South Central Texas.

The Basic SKYWARN training is free and open to anyone in Hays County and surrounding South Central Texas communities. The course provides a basic overview of severe thunderstorms, their hazards, how they form and their structure. This session also goes into detail about how to remain safe during severe weather and how to report severe weather to the local NWS office.

After basic training is complete, participants will be an official weather spotter for the National Weather Service, meaning the NWS will count on volunteer attendees to be their figurative eyes out in the field when trying to verify severe weather across South Central Texas. The Austin/San Antonio NWS office has 33 counties under its jurisdiction, making the role of official weather spotter very important to verifying and accurately determining where severe weather is occurring.

Real-time reports to the Austin/San Antonio NWS office help save lives and property, while post storm reports can help find severe weather damage, tornado tracks and verify severe weather warnings.

For more information on SKYWARN severe weather trainings, visit weather.gov/SKYWARN.