SKYWARN
SKYWARN™ is a program sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service. This program involves the use of trained volunteers to report, in real time, severe weather events such as, tornadoes, damaging hail, damaging high winds, and flash flooding. These reports are used by the National Weather Service to issue appropriate warnings to the affected areas and/or to validate watches and warnings that have already been issued. The SKYWARN program, as a whole, is not uniquely an Amateur Radio Emergency Service function. SKYWARN spotters also include public service and emergency response personnel, GMRS and REACT Radio Clubs and Groups, ZELLO groups, and regular citizens who telephone in their reports. Cherokee and Clay Counties of Southwest North Carolina are both located in the County Warning Area (CWA) of the Weather Service Forecast Office in Morristown, Tennessee, while the remainder of Western North Carolina is in the County Warning Area of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Our Club supports SKYWARN. Kevin Heyboer (KD4UYR), the SKYWARN Net Manager, heads up our SKYWARN nets and associated activities.
For more information about Southwest Carolina SKYWARN, see the Southwest Carolina SKYWARN Facebook page.
More general information about SKWARN can be found at the National Weather Service SKYWARN Web Site.