A mother with an infant on her shoulder tries to view a screen showing the three stages of a storm lifecycle during training to become a National Weather Service trained weather spotter.

A mother with an infant on her shoulder views a screen showing the three stages of a storm lifecycle during training to become a National Weather Service trained weather spotter.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

The National Weather Service still has a few sessions left this year for training citizens to help inform their communities during severe weather. 

The National Weather Service Peachtree City office holds about a dozen training opportunities for the SKYWARN Storm Spotter Program every year.

In a recent session in Macon, about 20 people learned the proper names for signs of severe weather, such as rotating wall clouds and shelf clouds. 

“Let's say someone calls in our office and says, you know, we see a rotating wall cloud,” Peachtree City-based Meteorologist Katie Martin said during the Macon training. “We would definitely then pull the trigger and issue a tornado warning.”

Martin said when community storm watchers call in, they help validate what experts think they see on radar. 

“We serve such a large area; like, area-wide, 96 counties,” she said. “So what's happening at your house, what's happening at your workplace is extremely beneficial.”

For 2024, there is one more in-person training session: It’s on Tuesday, Oct. 29, in Banks County. The year finishes out with a virtual training on Friday, Nov. 1. 

You can find the calendar of Skywarn training sessions here.

Tags: Climate  climate change  Storms  tornado  National Weather Service  Macon