The effects of severe weather are felt every year by many Americans. To obtain critical weather information, NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, established SKYWARN® with partner organizations. SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers 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 the average year, 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes occur across the United States. These events threatened lives and property.
Taking a SKYWARN® class is also a way to participate in America's Preparathon! Sign up and register your attendance as an activity.
National Weather Service Forecast Offices IN FEMA REGION VIII
Find out about Skywarn trainings in your area.
- Boulder/Denver, CO (serves northern Colorado)
- Grand Junction, CO (serves western Colorado and eastern Utah)
- Pueblo, CO (serves southern Colorado)
- Goodland, KS (serves far eastern Colorado)
- Billings, MT (serves southeastern Montana and Sheridan County, Wyoming)
- Glasgow, MT (serves northeastern Montana)
- Great Falls, MT (serves central Montana)
- Missoula, MT (serves western Montana)
- Bismarck, ND (serves western North Dakota)
- Grand Forks, ND (serves eastern North Dakota)
- Aberdeen, SD (serves northeastern South Dakota)
- Rapid City, SD (serves western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming)
- Sioux Falls, SD (serves southeastern South Dakota)
- Salt Lake City, UT (serves western Utah and Uintah County, Wyoming)
- Cheyenne, WY (serves southeastern Wyoming)
- Riverton, WY (serves western Wyoming)
