Ever Thought of Becoming a Trained Storm Spotter?
The National Weather Service Office in Chicago recently released its preliminary storm spotter schedule for 2013 and one training is being offered in Palatine.
If a tornado watch were issued, would you know exactly what to look for in terms of cloud structure to spot a wall cloud or even a funnel? Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that I am a National Weather Service-trained severe weather spotter. Before I took my first training class on March 3, 2008, I was pretty sure I knew what a wall cloud looked like. I soon learned, though, that I was wrong. What I thought was a wall cloud—or an isolated lowering of the cloud base—was actually a shelf cloud. Now I know what to watch for. I can tell if an approaching storm could spawn a tornado, and I even put that training to use a couple of years ago. I watched from my old apartment as a strong storm formed over Lake Michigan. I spotted a wall …
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