Do you have an interest in weather? Would you like to be able to help your local National Weather Service office by providing the ground truth on the atmosphere that we observe from radar, satellites and various reporting stations? Then consider attending the SKYWARN® program Basic course.

By attending this course, you will be trained by NWS personnel to recognize features associated with developing, mature, and dissipating thunderstorms which cause hazardous weather such as lightning, flooding, hail, tornadoes and downbursts. The attendee will also learn basics about winter weather and tropical hazards.

At the end of the course, you will be assigned a SKYWARN® spotter number which will be maintained in the official database at the NWS in Sterling. You will also be directed how to report this vital weather information. For those who have attended in the past but want a refresher, please feel free to attend. We would love to see you again!

This SKYWARN® Spotter Class is offered free of charge by the combined effort of the National Weather Service Office in Sterling VA and the Baltimore City, MD Office of Emergency Management. This will be a National Weather Service Meteorologist led online webinar class that will be presented through the gotowebinar program.

This class will be held as an online webinar. A gotowebinar link will be emailed to you a few days before the class is scheduled to be held. All that will be required to take this class is a computer and an internet connection.

Registration is required to attend the class!

“Skywarn® and the Skywarn® logo are registered trademarks of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, used with permission.”

Contact lwx-report@noaa.gov for questions or concerns regarding the class.