Many people talk about the weather but a large group of people in Lake County Florida did something about it by becoming trained Skywarn Weather Spotters.

A basic and advanced spotter’s class was given by the National Weather Service on March 5, 2011 at the Leesburg, FL. Public Library. The classes were presented by Scott Spratt and Johnathan Guseman, meteorologists from the NWS office in Melbourne, Florida. These classes were jointly sponsored by Lake County Amateur Radio Emergency Service and Lake Amateur Radio Association as well as the NWS.

Many of the participants were ham radio operators and public safety personnel or members of the general public who have an interest in learning how to assist the National Weather Service. They can do this by reporting dangerous weather conditions experienced locally that can not be seen by NWS radar. Both meteorologists mentioned many times how important it was to be able to get these reports in order to warn nearby communities about severe thunderstorms or tornados headed in a direction the doppler radars could not see because their beams were looking at weather too high in altitude over Lake County.

Students were taught what to look for and how to report such conditions as tornados, funnel clouds, hail,, flooding and wind reports. They were issued a Skywarn Spotters card and given emergency phone numbers to contact the NWS office in Melbourne Florida.

When severe weather is occurring in Lake County, trained spotters are often called at home by the NWS to determine the actual ground weather conditions.

The Melbourne meteorologists also gave everybody a very detailed analysis of the cause and effect of the February 2, 2007 Ground Hog Day tornado that tore through Lake County in which 21 deaths occurred with wide spread damage. Several of the ham operators in the audience had been deployed to provide back up radio communications for the Lake County First Responders as a result of that severe storm.