When the weather is active, we and the National Weather Service rely heavily on reports from trained weather spotters. Now you can become one! We try to shout out those people when we use their reports on TV, so you may have heard us reference trained storm spotters before. Because we know the training they've been through, we can better trust the reports they are sending.
Keep in mind radar is not a camera; it sends out pulses of energy which hit something (like a raindrop or snow flake) and bounce back to the radar. Then the radar and computers try to show the type of precipitation that is actually falling based on how the energy was reflected back. It's very good, but it's not a perfect system. Reports from spotters give us "ground truth" to verify what the radar is showing.
If you're interested in going through the training or being part of the spotter program, NWS Louisville will be doing the training online this season. Classes are free and open to all ages, and you can click here to learn more about the program. These are the dates the NWS sent us with links to register for each specific session. You only need to attend one, but each link is for a different day so make sure you select the right one.
