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How to become a trained severe weather spotter

BOSTON — Southern New England is known for some wild weather. From nor’easters, ice storms, hurricanes, and even severe storms -- we’ve seen it all.

These weather events threaten the lives of people and property, and now the National Weather Service is providing a virtual spotter training program for people at home who are interested in weather so you can stay safe and informed when severe weather strikes.

SKYWARN is a volunteer program established by the NWS and the US Department of Commerce. There are nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters across the US. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the NWS.

In the event of strong or severe weather such as tornadoes, hail, lightning and floods – our team of meteorologists work with the National Weather Service in Taunton to relay important weather information to the public.

Some of this information comes directly from SKYWARN spotters with critical information on severe weather reports.

While folks are staying at home practicing social distancing, the NWS will be sponsoring three SKYWARN training webinars that people can take for free online in order to receive a certificate.

The first one is Thursday at 6:30 p.m. People will learn the basics of thunderstorm development, identifying severe weather features, what information to report and severe weather safety. If you can’t join Thursday, you also have the opportunity to take the class two more times later this month.

Click here to learn more.