Reporting Severe Weather
Timely severe weather reports are very useful to meteorologists making warning decisions at the NWS. You could potentially save lives with a timely and accurate report. Here are a few useful tips when providing a severe weather report to the NWS.
- Be quick, clear, and calm
- Identify yourself and if you are a trained or untrained storm spotter/chaser
- What is the severe weather? (e.g. tornado on the ground, large hail, wind damage)
- Magnitude of event (e.g. baseball size hail, quarter mile wide tornado, etc.)
- Location of the severe weather (e.g. 4 miles NW of Aurora, NE)
- Brief desciption of damage if appicable (e.g. tree down blocking Hwy 36)
- Direction moving (if applicable)
- Provide any additional information that may be requested
- Submit additional reports should the situation worsen
If you do not know the number for the NWS than a call to 911 will suffice. You can also call your local emergency management center. Reporting via amature radio is ideal. If you are unable to submit a report during the event you should still consider an "after the fact" report for documentation. This is especially important if you just happen to be the only person who witnessed a particular tornado.
What should be reported?
Tornadoes
Funnel Clouds
Rotating Wall Clouds
Hail > 0.75"
Wind > 58 mph
Other, with damage
Flash Floods
What should not be reported?
Scud or tornado look-a-likes
Small hail (e.g. pea size)
Gusty wind (< 58 mph) with no damage
"The sky looks bad"
"Um, uh, well..."
"There are lowerings everywhere!"
"Holy S---!"
"I would like a large supreme..."