Sarasota County Emergency Management will offer a free SKYWARN training session from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday conducted by the Tampa Bay office of the National Weather Service..
SKYWARN is a volunteer program with between 350,000 and 400,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.
Although SKYWARN spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the focus is reporting on severe local thunderstorms. In an average year, the United States experiences more than 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes.
The training will be held at the Sarasota County Emergency Operations Center at 6050 Porter Way.
Registration can be done online at https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/04099416-c5a7-41e8-a46b-b0c77fe2dcf4@9ac90fa4-ea46-48d7-9114-bbf2fc554d0e
There are also virtual opportunities for those who would like to listen in from home.
If you're interested in weather and you'd like to learn more about being a weather spotter, come to the training this Saturday. Emergency management will be there to provide information about the 2025 hurricane season and how to keep yourself and your family safe.
Visit scgov.net/beprepared to find checklists and the Sarasota County Emergency Preparedness Guide. Sign up for emergency alerts from AlertSarasotaCounty.com or text SRQCounty to 888777 to receive text alerts.
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