Happy SKYWARN Recognition Day! 

In 1999 the National Weather Service and American Radio Relay League created SKYWARN Recognition Day. For more than twenty years, SKYWARN spotters and radio volunteers have been celebrated on December 5 for the resources they provide to the weather community. Today  spotters and radio operators are encouraged to "report in" to their location National Weather Service office as a way to recognize their service. Here you can see photos from in-person events in past years; this year SKYWARN Recognition Day was mostly celebrated virtually. The Louisville area was well-represented in the early years, but more recently there have not been as many people from our area reporting. 

What is SKYWARN?

SKYWARN is a program put on by the National Weather Service to train people to be weather spotters, specifically for severe storms. There are up to 400,000 trained spotters in the country, and the reports they send to the NWS are immensely valuable. These spotters send in real-time reports about what the weather is doing that can help the National Weather Service issue better warnings and can help us on TV communicate the threats better of a particular storm. Because we know these spotters have been through the NWS training, their reports are usually more reliable. Click here to learn more about the local trainings and how you can become a SKYWARN storm spotter. 

SKYWARN is also heavily connected to the radio community because radio communication is instantaneous and so dependable. Radio operators are still a major source of real-time weather reports during severe storms. 

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