St Clair County Introduces New Storm Program

7/10/2017 (Permalink)

St Clair County's Emergency Management Department announced a new storm warning program. The SKYWARN program is a part of the St. Clair County ARES/RACES organization.

The National Weather Service (NWS) utilizes trained personnel in the field to provide timely and accurate reports of storm activity from various locations that can supplement the NWS radar network.

In the SKYWARN program, there are over 50 trained weather spotters available to report weather conditions to the Emergency Operations Center. These individuals come from many walks of life, some utilizing amateur radios while other will utilize cell phones as their reporting methods. Many of the spotters are equipped with pagers to insure prompt notification of weather warnings. In addition to the SKYWARN spotter system, many of our local fire departments place apparatus in key locations to assist in providing weather information. Local residents  now will have the potential to receive earlier notification of life threatening weather situations.