Prepping for Severe Summer Weather in North Dakota
April 26 through April 30, 2021, has been dedicated as North Dakota Severe Summer Weather Awareness Week by the National Weather Service (NWS).
In addition, the month of April is Citizen Science Month, a celebration of volunteers of all walks of life getting involved in research by collecting data, analyzing results and being assets to scientific organizations across the globe. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA—parent to NWS—is celebrating Citizen Science Month with a countdown to Earth Day (April 22). Each day, their social media posts a new project for citizen scientists to get involved in, depending on their location. The first was “Spot severe weather with NOAA NWS SKYWARN.” SKYWARN is a national citizen science program that trains volunteers to spot and accurately report severe weather events to the NWS. The network, now boasting nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters, is every community’s first line of defense against hazardous weather.
“They also provide important information to NWS warning forecasters who make critical warning decisions,” NOAA says. “Storm spotters play a critical role because they can see things that radar and other technological tools cannot, and this ground truth is critical in helping the NWS perform our primary mission, to save lives and property.”
The program was started up in the 1970s by NOAA’s NWS and its partner organizations and ever since then, SKYWARN spotter information, along with Doppler-radar technology and improving satellite data, NWS has been able to issue more timely and accurate warnings for severe weather threats, like tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash floods.
As North Dakota’s Severe Summer Weather
Awareness Week approaches, NWS Bismarck has scheduled a series of SKYWARN classes.
Though they’re normally held in person, the SKYWARN classes this April will be virtual, conducted via GoToWebinar. Each session will last about an hour (perhaps a bit longer, depending on Q&A at the end), and is free and open to anyone. Individuals only need to attend
one session.
“The class will focus on recognizing and understanding the different types of severe summer weather including lightning, thunderstorms, down-burst winds, flash floods, hail, and tornadoes,” Stutsman County Emergency Manager
Jerry Bergquist says. “The class will also share advice on how to be safe from severe summer weather events in North Dakota.”
Here’s the schedule: Mon., April 12 – 4 p.m. Tues., April 13 – 7 p.m. Tues., April 20 – 10 a.m. Thurs., April 22 – 8 p.m. Tues., April 27 – 7 p.m.
Each day of Severe Summer Weather
Awareness Week is dedicated to a specific weather phenomenon and/or preparations: Monday is Severe Thunderstorms, Tuesday is Tornadoes, Wednesday is Tornado Drill, Thursday is Lightning and Friday is Flash Flooding. The NWS offers the public information about each specific event/defense, helping citizens familiarize themselves with the threats of severe summer weather situations, and teaches individuals how to interpret different emergency alerts (watches vs. warnings) and respond appropriately.
Think it’s a bit too early to be thinking about severe summer weather? Think again. The majority of tornadoes occur in the US during the months of March,
April, May and June. In fact, North Dakota saw its earliest tornado (calendar year) on March 26, 2003, in Stutsman County.
So take advantage of this month to become informed with SKYWARN and pay close attention to NWS’ information and recommendations during Severe Sumer Weather Week later this month. Head to the website to register for one of the upcoming SKYWARN sessions: www.weather.gov/bis/ NWSBismarckSKYWARNSchedule2021
Once you’ve registered, a confirmation email will be sent to you. If you have any questions, contact John Paul Martin, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, at john.paul.martin@noaa.gov