Sheridan County Search and Rescue, in collaboration with the National Weather Service (NWS), will be hosting a spotter training and weather safety class for the public. Hosted on May 22nd at theSheridan area search and rescue building, the class is free to register and open to anyone.
Severe thunderstorms, flash floods and hail-storms are all common weather events in Wyoming. According to Sheridan County Emergency Management, Wyoming experienced 23 touchdowns last year and 124 touchdowns over the past decade.
And that’s just the ones they can identify. Jerry Claycomp, lead forecaster with the NWS in Cheyenne says that a state like Wyoming is sparse, making every weather report more valuable.
“If we don't get reports from storm chasers that are our spotters, or even the general population,” said Claycomp. “We can't verify any of our warnings.”
The NWS uses radar and satellites to track, study and forecast weather events. However, most of the radar stations are located in more populated areas. That leaves large portions of Wyoming in a radar blind spot, with radar being blocked by mountain ranges or dips in elevation. Rural areas in these blind spots could have tornadoes touch down. While a satellite may be able to gather information from above, only a witness on the ground can confirm the touchdown.
That witness can call the NWS so that they can incorporate the information into forecasts. This is why the NWS wants to see the public become more proficient in weather spotting. Not just tornados, but all types of severe weather.
“Even if we get like a report of dime size hail, the person issuing the warnings can gauge how strong they are and how big to forecast for hail size,” explained Claycomp.
With that aim of helping the public gather critical weather information, the NWS has a program called Skywarn. Running since the 1970s, Skywarn has trained just under 300,000 volunteer weather spotters. While classes are on-going around the state and country, residents in Sheridan will have an opportunity to attend one in May.
The training will teach attendees a range of weather safety skills, like identifying the warning signs of a severe storm, how to determine the category of tornado, and how to remain safe in flash flood weather. Jesse Ludikhuize, Sheridan Emergency Management Coordinator with Sheridan County, some specific occupations and groups have taken the class in the past.
“We have a lot of ranchers that like to take this class and have taken it in the past to protect themselves and their livestock from these damaging storms. And then also a lot of people that maybe camp or hike, they can know the best practices,” said Ludikhuize.
Sheridan County Emergency Management also found that Wyoming is number one in the nation for lightning death. While all lightning strike deaths have happened in the mountains since 1995, according to the NWS, the class will still address how to lower the chances of such an event happening.
“Lightning is also a significant part of this particular training and class. And so in the class, they will discuss what severe storms look like, scientifically how they develop, and then warning signs,” said Ludikhuize.
Ludikhuize encourages the public to attend, with the hope that this will increase public awareness of rural weather events. However, if you can’t make it to the Sheridan class, Ludikhuize said not to worry.
“They do annually host these weather spotter trainings for the public,” said Ludikhuize. “Because they do want them to be informed about the severe weather and to take the precautions they need to protect themselves.”
