The Buffalo office of the National Weather Service, in cooperation with the Monroe County Office of Emergency Management, will be conducting a Winter SKYWARN spotter training seminar at the Monroe County Emergency Operations Center, 1190 Scottsville Road, Suite 200, Rochester on Thursday November 20, 2025, at 7 p.m.
SKYWARN is a national effort to save lives during severe weather and winter weather emergencies with a network of trained volunteer weather spotters. SKYWARN spotters support their local community and government by providing reports of severe winter weather directly to the National Weather Service in Buffalo by phone using the NWS spotter hotline, or by various online reporting methods. The services performed by SKYWARN spotters have saved many lives.
The National Weather Service has several devices for detecting severe winter storms. Included in these are Doppler radar and satellite imagery. However, one of the most important tools for observing winter weather is the trained eye of the storm spotter. By providing observations of snow and ice, SKYWARN spotters assist National Weather Service staff in their warning decisions and enable the National Weather Service to fulfill its mission of protecting life and property. Storm spotters are, and always will be, an indispensable part of the winter warning program.
The basic training session provides a brief overview of the National Weather Service organization and its responsibilities, winter weather safety, and winter weather meteorology including how lake effect snowstorms and larger scale snowstorms develop. Anyone can become a winter weather spotter for the National Weather Service. SKYWARN training is free and open to the public.
For further information, call the National Weather Service at 716-565-0204.
Registration is required. The registration form link and additional information is available at https://www.weather.gov/buf/Skywarn.
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