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Spotter Talk Schedule for 2004 Information We Need from You to Become a Weather Spotter for WFO PuebloIf you are interested in becoming a VOLUNTEER weather spotter for WFO Pueblo, and live in south central and southeast Colorado, we would be interested in talking with you. The National Weather Service in Pueblo has over 1400 volunteer weather spotters across its area of responsibility. Over 300 of those are within the city limits of Colorado Springs. If you have wind equipment and a VERY, VERY strong interest in weather, we would still encourage you to volunteer if you live in Colorado Springs. We are specifically looking for volunteers outside of large towns anywhere in our area, in remote mountain locations, in the San Luis Valley, and in Chaffee and Lake counties.A weather spotter's job during the cold months is generally to relay snowfall amounts, freezing precipitation occurrences, high wind events, and dense fog reports. Little training is required to relay this information; a yardstick and a good pair of eyes. During the warm season, it can get a bit more involved. Between 80 and 90 percent of the thunderstorms for which we issue warnings have large hail and heavy rain ONLY. Your tools to report back to us would be an inexpensive rain gauge (highly recommended, but not necessary), and a device to measure hail diameter (ruler, or our nifty hail card). When thunderstorms develop into high wind producers and even tornadoes, specific training is necessary to report these events to WFO Pueblo. There are specific cloud structures and clues around thunderstorms that indicate high winds and tornadic development. If you are interested in reporting this type of information to us, it is highly recommended that you attend, in person, a SKYWARN Spotter Training Meeting in your area. In the Meantime, on-line SKYWARN Training is here... A condensed version of "in person" SKYWARN training is on this web site. A few words on this training. The slide show is especially designed to be run on Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4.0 or later. However, you can still view the presentation on many other browsers or IE versions earlier than version 4.0. However, the best functionality and clarity of images will be seen on IE, v4.0 or later. Some images are degraded on browsers other than IE, v4.0 or later. If you use IE, v4.0 or later, you will be able to adjust the three panes of the presentation to optimize the viewing of the slides. When the presentation pops up, grab onto the left hand side of the slide pane, and drag it over to the far left side of the screen. You will lose the slide titles, but, this is fairly unimportant. Then grab the top of the notes pane and expand it up, so you can read the notes without having to scroll too much. By doing this you will shrink the size of the slides a bit. If you view the presentation using another browser or IE versions earlier than 4.0, you will NOT be able to adjust the sizes of the three panes, and the images will be, in some cases, degraded. Also, if you hit the "back" button while in the presentation, you will be taken back to the previous slide, NOT to this spotter page on our web site. To get back to this spotter page you will either have to hit the "back" button numerous times to get out of the presentation, OR you will need to close the browser, and then reopen the browser. It is to your advantage to use Microsoft IE, v4.0 or later!! The presentation is split up into three separate parts. This was done because the presentation has 154 slides with notes, and once you get into the presentation, you cannot save the place where you decide to quit. So, with only one part, you would have to start at the beginning everytime you wanted to go through the material again. By having three "bite-size" parts, you can more easily access the material. Each part will probably take you between 30 minutes and 45 minutes to complete. Especially when viewing the presentation with a slower internet connection, some of the images will take a little time to load up. We suggest, you read the notes below the slide before the image loads, so as not to take up any more of you time than need be. Again, using any other browser than IE, v4.0 or later, some of the images will be degraded. We tried to make this presentation with MPEG movies, but the loading speeds of the movies was too slow given the current technology and bandwidth. After studying the material in the SKYWARN weather spotter training, you may take a 25 question quiz by clicking here. If you score 88% or better (you can miss three questions), we will send you a wallet sized SKYWARN Spotter Card with your name on it. Below are the links to the presentation. To view the presentation in Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4.0 or later (highly recommended) To view the presentation in other browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3 or earlier (not encouraged) In summary, you can still be a spotter for us by just reporting snow amounts, freezing precipitation, high wind events, dense fog, hail diameter, and rainfall amounts. It's up to you! Please fill out the form below if you want further information on becoming a VOLUNTEER weather spotter for WFO Pueblo. Providing this information is voluntary. If you do NOT feel comfortable giving out some of the information requested below, you can call our office at (719) 948-3371 (Pueblo), (719) 573-6846 (Colorado Springs), or (719) 589-3232 (Alamosa), or Email us at pubnws@noaa.gov. Regardless, after we correspond back to you, we will send you a packet of information to get you started. Thanks!
Basic Weather Spotters Field Guide
Warning Coordination Meteorologist
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