The SKYWARN® program is sponsored by NOAA’s National Weather Service. Trained storm spotters serve as valuable “ground truth” observers during times of severe weather, verifying what NWS personnel are observing on RADAR. Amateur radio operators play a vital role in this program, reporting current weather information via local SKYWARN nets. This information is then delivered to the NWS office via ham radio or the Internet. In Henderson County, SKYWARN nets operate under the ARES umbrella.
There can be no finer reward than to know that a SKYWARN report could give a community the precious gift of time– seconds and minutes of warning that could save lives.
SKYWARN nets are activated at the request of the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth or the Henderson County Office of Emergency Management. Nets are conducted on the 146.90 MHz repeater which can be accessed by the NWS via the repeater’s Echolink node. Net activations are announced on the Athens ARC repeater before the net is opened.
The NWS Hazardous Weather Outlook is updated during the day, and is the best source of information for upcoming SKYWARN activation.
Useful Links
- NWS Hazardous Weather Outlook
- NWS Spotter Activation Map
- NWS Watches/Warnings Map
- NWS Radar Products
- NWS East Texas Radar
- NWS Forecast for Mabank
- Henderson County Hazard Planner
- North Texas SKYWARN Net Frequencies
SKYWARN Training Manuals
- The Weather Spotters Field Guide (NWS – June 2011)
- Storm Spotter Manual: Basic
- Storm Spotter Manual: Advanced
- Dallas County SKYWARN Cloud Cowboy Manual
- NWS Downloadable Brochures
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SKYWARN® is a registered trademark of NOAA’s National Weather Service. Rules for the usage of the SKYWARN® name and logo are available here.
