Widespread showers and thunderstorms producing heavy rain may bring flooding to South Texas and parts of the Northeast U.S. today and tonight. Isolated to scattered severe thunderstorms with damaging gusts and large hail are expected today over parts of the southern Appalachians, Tennessee Valley, and Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Read More >
Congratulations on completing the NWS Paducah's Spotter Concepts Skywarn Spotter Training Class!
SKYWARN SPOTTER COMPLETION CERTIFICATE
NOTE: To download your certificate, right click the link above and choose Save-As. Then, save the certificate to your computer and open it with a free pdf reader, such as Adobe Reader, You will then be able to insert your name and the date in the appropriate locations.
Consider this supplemental information to help you in your Skywarn spotting journey and to help keep you safe from hazardous weather. We hope you will find them useful. Be a weather safety ambassador and use your new found knowledge to teach others how to be safe:
NOAA Weather Radio/Anemometers Handout
Great outdoors safety brochure
The following information is listed as reminders and reference material for spotters:
NWS Paducah Spotter Sign up Form
NWS Paducah Storm Reporting Page
NWS Paducah NOAA Weather Radio Page
NWS Paducah Hazardous Weather Page
NWS Paducah Past Weather Events Page
SPOTTERS: HOW TO SUBMIT STORM REPORTS:
SPOTTERS: WHAT TO REPORT:
Wind Damage (e.g. trees or tree limbs down, shingles off of buildings etc.)
Wind of 40 to 50 mph or greater
Hail (any size)
Wall Cloud
Funnel Cloud
Tornado
Flooding (water over roads, water rising out of banks of small creek and streams)
Snow or ice beginning to accumulate on roads or other surfaces
Snowfall (about every 1 inch of accumulation)
Freezing Rain (about every 1/4 inch of accumulation and any related damage)
REPORTING TIPS:
•Use the spotter hotline for REPORTS ONLY.
•Always report what you see as accurately and concisely as possible.
•Use references to nearby towns as much as possible in addition to roads.
•Try not to make assumptions about what you see.
•Tell us your uncertainty if you have any.
•If you are not sure about something, call and tell us what you are seeing.
•The effectiveness of reports is governed by whether correct information can be relayed to the NWS in a manner the staff can use. -Ambiguous or bad reports raise questions and cause confusion.
•It is very important to dictate whether you are measuring or estimating.
•When possible, call directly into our office with your report.
•Know each of your landmarks and measure the direction and distances between your designated location and those landmarks.
•Exact location of storm reports is very important - Sometimes even a difference in a mile or two can make a difference!
GUIDES FOR NWS SKYWARN SPOTTERS:
SPOTTERS: WEATHER ANALYSIS TOOLS:
ELITE SPOTTER ONLINE WEATHER RESOURCES:
Online Educational/Informational Materials:
National Severe Storm Laboratory: https://www.nssl.noaa.gov
MetEd (Comet) Online Modules: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/
Weather World 2010 University of Illinois: https://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu
NWS Glossary: https://www.weather.gov/glossary/
EF Scale: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/
NWS Online Weather School: https://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/
SPC’s Tornado FAQs: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/
Meteorology Training Documents: https://www.weather.gov/lmk/trainingdoc
National Weather Association: https://nwas.org/
American Meteorological Society: https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/
Weather Data and Analysis:
NWS NCEP Model Page: https://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/
NWS Hydrometeorological Prediction Center: http://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/
NWS Paducah Model Page: https://www.weather.gov/pah/ComputerModelData
College of DuPage Model Page: https://weather.cod.edu/forecast/
College of Dupage Analysis Page: https://weather.cod.edu/analysis/
San Jose Weather Page: https://www.met.sjsu.edu/weather/models.html
Penn State Weather Page: https://www.met.psu.edu/weather
Kentucky Mesonet: https://www.kymesonet.org/
SPC Mesoanalysis Page: http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/
NWS Radar Sites: https://radar.weather.gov/index.htm
College of DuPage Radar (lowest 4 elev. angles free): https://weather.cod.edu/satrad/index.php
Spotter Information:
Spotter/Chasing Safety: https://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Chasing2.html
NWS Oklahoma City spotter resource page: https://www.weather.gov/oun/spotter
Skywarn Online: https://www.skywarnonline.com/
National Skywarn Page: https://www.skywarn.org/
University of Illinois Severe Storms Guide: https://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/guides/mtr/svr/home.rxml
Stormtrack: https://www.stormtrack.org
For those wishing to take some basic spotter classes online, or take refresher courses on the material presented by the NWS, MetEd offers an alternate way to achieve your training:
MetEd is populated and maintained by the COMET® Program, which is part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research's (UCAR's) Community Programs (UCP).
Skywarn Spotter Convective Basics
Once you have completed this training, you may contact christine.wielgos@noaa.gov for instructions on making spotter reports.
For spotters who have attended our 2025 Elite Storm Spotter Class, you can access your certificate below:
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