UTAH AND SOUTHWEST WYOMING WEATHER SPOTTER HOME PAGE
The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City maintains a
volunteer spotter network with over 400 people assisting our office. Members
of this spotter network are trained to objectively observe and quantify
potentially hazardous weather phenomenon and report their findings to the
Salt Lake City Weather Service Office. Significant weather events in Utah
and southwest Wyoming range from high winds, snow and blizzards, to hail
and even tornadoes. The services our spotters provide in reporting these
events are invaluable to our office. The Utah and Southwest Wyoming Storm
Spotter Page is dedicated to giving our spotters online access to resources
such as training guides and presentations, information about upcoming training
sessions, our spotter newsletter, and more. Additionally, those who have
a vested interest in weather can use this page to contact us, and begin
the process of becoming an official storm spotter.
ROLE OF THE WEATHER SPOTTER
A weather spotter is a person who observes significant weather
and relays the information to the National
Weather Service (NWS) or appropriate local authority, based on the severity
and immediate threat of the event observed.
Spotters provide an invaluable service to their communities
and to the National Weather Service. The information they provide helps
their community by assisting local public safety officials in making critical
decisions aimed at protecting lives and property. During life-threatening
weather events such as tornadoes and flash flooding, these real-time reports
from weather spotters are used to help warn others in their community, as
well as those neighboring communities which may be in harm's way.
Spotter reports also help National Weather Service forecasters
in the critical decision making process of determining what storms pose
a risk to lives and property. The National Weather Service uses these critical
reports from storm spotters in combination with radar, satellite, and automated
surface observations when issuing Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado, Flash Flood,
Winter Storm, and other types of warnings. Your report becomes part of the
warning decision making process, and is combined with radar data and other
information and used by NWS forecasters to decide whether or not to:
- Issue a new warning
- Cancel an existing warning
- Continue a warning
- Issue a warning for the next county
- Change the warning type (from severe thunderstorm to tornado, for
example)
In addition to being used in the warning decision making process
by National Weather Service forecasters, spotter reports also provide valuable
information to people in the path of a potentially deadly storm. Ground
truth reports from spotters help to give credibility to the warnings issued
by the National Weather Service to those people who are in the path of a
potentially damaging or life-threatening storm. This ground-truth information
helps motivate people in harms way to take action to protect themselves
and their property.
At times, the National Weather Service may call a spotter
after a storm has passed, in order to inquire what conditions were like
as the storm moved through. This information helps NWS forecasters train
for the next big event. Of course, spotters are always encouraged to take
the initiative and call the NWS office with their information.
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