re:clouds and spotters (solderpunk)                           04/04/23
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Solderpunk  recently   gave  a  terrifying  introduction   into  cloud
identification[1]. If you were thinking you might like to learn how to
properly classify and describe those  puffy things above you, read his
post and get the notion out of your system as quickly as possible! I'm
still shaking from it myself.

To answer  his question  about my own  small weather  spotter training
story:

I  was minding  my own  business,  when suddenly  I found  that I  had
somehow  been  subscribed  to  the  Mid-Missouri  Skywarn  Association
mailing list  on Groups.io. Honestly, I  have no idea how  I got there
(though I have  some guesses), but their messages were  coming into my
inbox, and so I figured it was probably time to get some training.

Very quickly, I learned that  the Skywarn program is somewhat defunct.
Spotter IDs are no longer issued, the club is just a loose one at this
point. In-person training was sparse,  if available at all, but online
training was an  option (though, the old-timers seemed to  frown on it
as valid--go figure).

I took the online training, and  found it quite interesting. It mostly
consisted of  looking  at  diagrams  and  then  taking  small  quizzes
identifying  weather from  photos. To  appease the  old-timers (who  I
admire as a group in general),  I wanted to find in-person training as
well. My  opportunity came  when the  NWS decided to  hold a  class in
Jefferson City, about 30min south of my home.

The  class  was   at  night,  and  in  the  winter.   It  was  snowing
ever-so-lightly when I arrived. TV crews were there (to record a small
clip for  the evening news  weather segment), as were  local emergency
coordinators. Ultimately, it ended up  being a lecture with photos and
videos, and  some quiz-ish  sorts of activities.  Our trainer  was the
radar  tech  from  the  STL  office.  Solderpunk  mentioned  that  his
impression  of the  spotter program  was that  it was  "basically... a
program to  'crowdsource' early detection  of heavy weather",  but the
radar tech had  a different take. She explained that  due to technical
limitations, radar  is very  bad at getting  ground-level information.
The NWS  relies on trained spotters  to report as much  ground data as
possible, which they use primarily for early warning systems.

To be  honest, the training  was a little underwhelming.  It consisted
primarily of  learning how to  file a  proper report, how  to estimate
wind speed, how  to identify the parts of a  thunderstorm and tornado,
how to  spot false positive patterns,  and how to properly  report the
size of hail. The types of things  that could have been in a brochure.
I'm probably selling it  a little short; it was nice  to have a highly
technical  person there  explaining  things,  and to  be  able to  ask
questions.

Funny thing  too: I was  told that  these trainings were  usually only
held once a  year in an area,  so I'd better not miss  it. 30min drive
wasn't terrible,  but a couple  weeks after the class,  they announced
they'd have a training right in Fulton, 5min from my house!

If  you like  weather, and  want to  help out  the NWS,  I'd recommend
the  spotter  training. If  you  just  like  weather, you  might  find
the  information a  little thin,  but still  interesting. What  you'll
definitely  not get  out of  it is  the ability  to memorize,  or even
understand cloud classifications!

[1] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/cloud-spotting-blues.txt