SKYWARN^TM Spotter Program What is Skywarn^TM?
     Skywarn^TM is a National Weather Service (NWS) program of trained volunteer severe weather spotters. Skywarn^TM volunteers support their local community and government by providing the NWS with timely and accurate severe weather reports. These reports, when integrated with modern NWS technology, are used to inform communities of the proper actions to take as severe weather threatens. The key focus of the Skywarn^TM program is to save lives and property through the use of the observations and reports of trained volunteers.

What does a Skywarn^TM Spotter report?
     Although all reports are welcome, the National Weather Service in Boise is particularly interested in the weather elements described below.

Weather Phenomena	Call The NWS if...
Wind	50 mph or stronger
Hail	3/4 inch (penny or dime size) or larger in diameter
Tornado	Any tornado or rotating cloud
Flooding	Any significant amount of water in normally dry areas
River Flooding	Any river rising above their normal bank level
Heavy Rain	Rain rates of 1 inch per hour or greater And - Rain greater than 1 inch in 24 hours
Heavy Snow	Call while snowing at a rate of 1 inch per hour or greater And - Call with total snow fall if >= 1 inch when the snow ends
Low Visibilities	Visibility less than 1/2 mile due to fog, dust, rain, or snow
Freezing Rain	Any freezing rain

How Do I Become a Skywarn^TM Weather Spotter?
     The National Weather Service welcomes volunteers with an interest in severe weather spotting. Since the NWS instituted the Skywarn^TM Program, there has been a significant decrease in the death rate due to tornadoes and other severe weather. The Skywarn^TM program is completely voluntary. You may have the opportunity to call our office several times a season depending on the weather pattern in your neck-of-the-woods. If you agree, we may occasionally call you for a "ground truth" as to what is actually happening near your house. Most likely our phone call will be to confirm an element of potentially severe thunderstorms, like large hail, or damaging wind. Other calls may be to verify heavy snowfall or peak wind speed associated with large winter storms.

If interested please email boi.spotter@noaa.gov

Spotter Newsletters
(These files are in Adobe Acrobat^® format. The free reader/printer for these files is available from http://www.adobe.com.)

SkywarnTM Spotter Newsletters 2008 Spring/Summer   2007 Spring/Summer Winter 2006 Spring/Summer Winter

Webmaster
US Dept of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Weather Service
Boise Weather Forecast Office
NIFC Building 3807
Boise, ID 83705-5354

Tel: (208) 334-9860