{"id":22299,"date":"2012-03-23T05:32:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T10:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=22299"},"modified":"2012-03-24T00:00:25","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T05:00:25","slug":"county-weather-spotter-training-session-draws-big-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/03\/23\/county-weather-spotter-training-session-draws-big-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Weather spotter training draws big crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER<\/strong>\/independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Michael Lewis, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service office in North Webster, Ind., conducted a weather spotter class Thursday evening in the Lincolnview Elementary School cafeteria. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With spring now officially sprung, Van Wert County can now look forward to the possibility of severe weather occurring at just about any time for the next several months.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as shown by the turnout at Thursday evening\u2019s weather spotting training, interest in severe weather has never been greater. Approximately 120 people — the highest number ever — showed up at the Lincolnview Elementary School cafeteria to participate in training that would allow them to be weather spotters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the largest crowd we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Van Wert County Emergency Management Director Rick McCoy said, adding that more than 90 people signed up on his Facebook page alone for the seminar.<\/p>\n

Those taking the training included first responders, as well as county residents from all walks of life.<\/p>\n

As McCoy was quick to point out, though, weather spotting is not the same thing as storm chasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis class is not for you to be a storm chaser,\u201d McCoy told those attending. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see you on National Geographic getting killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also noted that weather spotters are most valuable when they factually report what they’re seeing outside their residence, business or just while they’re out driving in the county when a storm occurs.<\/p>\n

Michael Lewis, NWS weather coordination meteorologist, conducted Thursday\u2019s training session, which because of federal funding cuts, is now only held every other year in the county, instead of annually as in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to get new eyes out there of what\u2019s going on, not only what they\u2019re seeing during the storm but afterwards,\u201d the local EMA director said of the weather spotter training. McCoy noted that damage reports are particularly important after a storm passes. \u201cSometimes we don\u2019t receive damage reports until days after a storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis showed people what to look for, as far as severe weather events go, and how to get pertinent information ahead of time through the National Weather Service website and its Storm Prediction Center, as well as other resources.<\/p>\n

Lewis also provided procedures on how to get that information to McCoy and the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

According to McCoy, it\u2019s vitally important to have a large number of weather spotters in all portions of the county to provide information on what\u2019s happening during, and after, a storm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for a number of things, including the presence of hail and hail size, wind damage, flooding issues, and the presence of wall clouds, funnel clouds or tornadoes \u2013 the severe aspects of a storm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

McCoy said storm spotters should also report any crashes, power outages or fires caused by the storm, as well as storm-related property damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor With spring now officially sprung, Van Wert County can now look forward to the possibility of severe weather occurring at just about any time for the next several months. Moreover, as shown by the turnout at Thursday evening\u2019s weather spotting training, interest in severe weather has never been greater. Approximately 120 people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 01:33:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}