The National Weather Service will hold a SKYWARN Severe Weather Spotter Training in Austin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 19 at the Crane Chapel, 1111 Ninth St. NE.

The class will last around two hours and includes a multimedia presentation.  Training is intended for storm spotters or potential storm spotters, but is open to the public and free of charge.  A review of recent and past severe weather will be included.

The NWS relies heavily on actual storm reports from “spotters,” which can include sheriff’s departments, local emergency management officials, police and fire departments, amateur radio operators, or anyone else that has attended one of these classes.  These reports can prompt warnings that save lives – a proven fact seen many times in the region.

Todd Shea, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the weather service in

La Crosse, Wis,. organizes the training each year and encourages large groups and active volunteers. Mower County, as well as other areas of southeast Minnesota, always needs more “ground-truth” weather reports to pass along to the NWS.

Pre-registration is not needed. You can view the training schedule at:  www.weather.gov/lacrosse/skywarn_schedule