Paris, Tenn.–As part of its area-wide weather preparedness campaign, the National Weather Service in Memphis will offer a Skywarn storm spotter training program on Tuesday, October 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.
The program will be in Paris at the County Emergency Operations Center, 204 N. Brewer St., and will be held in partnership with Henry County Emergency Management. County Emergency Management Director Ron Watkins wants to invite anyone wishing to learn more about severe weather and how to best protect yourself to come and enjoy this informative course. “I am very pleased to have a veteran lead meteorologist from the Memphis NOAA Weather Service Office here to present potentially lifesaving information. Local warning capabilities such as the Sheriffs Dept/Emergency Management text alert system and the role of social media to push out warning information will be discussed.”
The program will discuss thunderstorm formation, severe weather production, and features associated with severe storms. The presentation will also review tornado formation and behavior, non-threatening clues which may be mistaken for significant features, and safety tips to keep in mind when thunderstorms threaten. The program will discuss recommended reporting procedures and interpretation of weather radar images. The presentation will be in multimedia format, featuring numerous pictures of storms and nearly 25 minutes of storm video clips.
The network of trained storm spotters plays an important role across the mid-South. “We could not do our job as well as we do without storm spotters”, said Gary Woodall, Warning Coordination
Meteorologist at the Memphis NWS Office. “Real-time reports from storm spotters play a huge role in our warnings. “Radar and satellite are great tools, but they only tell us part of a storm’s story. The
combination of spotter reports and electronic data gives us the best possible picture of the storms and what’s going on inside them”.
The program is free and open to the public. “By coming to this program, you will learn a lot about
thunderstorms”, Woodall said. “Even if you don’t become an active storm spotter, you will learn about how storms work and the visual clues you can identify when storms are in your area. We will discuss severe weather safety tips. This will better prepare yourself and your family for the threats that storms pose”.
The Henry County severe weather program is one of nearly 15 that the Memphis NWS Office will
conduct between September and early November. The National Weather Service in Memphis provides forecasts, warnings, and weather services for 57 counties across the mid-South. For more information on severe weather and the National Weather Service, visit the Memphis Forecast Office’s website at
http://www.weather.gov/memphis or contact Henry County Emergency Management at 644-2678.
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