The National Weather Service's
SKYWARN Program

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The SKYWARN program is run independently in each Forecast Office of the National Weather Service (NWS). Locally these functions are run out of the Forecast Office in Upton, NY which is located on the grounds of the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Warning and Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) is the final authority on all matters concerning SKYWARN. The WCM uses volunteer weather observers for reporting destructive thunderstorms or other severe, unusual, or hazardous weather conditions. Amateur radio operators and local volunteer weather observers, generally operating through local organizations, are ideally equipped to contribute to the SKYWARN program. [From The National Weather Service's Skywarn Spotter's Guide.]

SKYWARN Weather Net activations for our area are announced on NOAA Weather Radio, 162.550 MHz. (NYC) and 162.475 MHz. (Riverhead). Severe weather alerts are encoded with the new "Specific Area Message Encoding" (SAME) digital code and the old-style 1050 Hz alerting tone, which many weather radios are equipped to listen for. A table of regional FIPS state and county codes has been prepared so that you can properly configure one of these new weather radios, such as the Radio Shack model 12-249 7-Channel Weatheradio with NWS-SAME Severe-Weather Alert.

Note that a SKYWARN alert is a good first indication that there may be an ARES/RACES call up as the most frequent type of emergency that requires amateur radio assistance in this region is caused by severe weather (coastal flooding, high wind damage, heavy snow).

The local Town of Babylon SKYWARN Severe Weather Spotting Net operates on the 146.685 W2GSB/R repeater (PL 110.9) as needed. The Suffolk County SKYWARN Severe Weather Spotting Net operates on the 145.310 K2SPD/R repeater (PL 118.8) as needed. The alternate Suffolk County Skywarn frequency is the 145.330 WA2LQO repeater (PL 136.5). This frequency is also the primary frequency for the Suffolk County ARES/RACES Nets. Training sessions for SKYWARN spotters are usually provided by the National Weather Service each year.

A short glossary of weather terms has been provided here by the National Weather Service office in Upton, NY (at the Brookhaven National Lab).

For more detailed information about SKYWARN click on either of the following sites:
National Weather Service Forecast Office, Upton, NY (OKX) or the National SKYWARN pages.

To locate a SKYWARN training session near you click on the following site:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/okx/spottertraining.html

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The National Weather Service's SKYWARN Program

The National Weather Service's
SKYWARN Program