Central Carolina Skywarn

Looking for the Basic SKYWARN Training Weather Spotter’s Field Guide?  Here’s the URL: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/brochures/SGJune6-11.pdf

Central Carolina SKYWARN offers Basic Spotter Training via its net April 23 & 30!

Do you live in central North Carolina and need Basic Spotter Training? Has it been 3 years since you’ve had Basic Spotter Training and it’s now time to refresh?  SKYWARN Spotter Training will be offered on the CCS Information Net on April 23 & 30 at 9:15 PM on the 146.88 repeater. Part 1 of Basic Training will be April 23; Part 2, April 30. The instructor will be Nick Petro WX3H, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the Raleigh National Weather Service.

To fully benefit from this training and to receive a spotter certificate you must:
A. download the training presentation before each net from www.centralcarolinaskywarn.net  (It will be included with the Weekly Weather Impact Briefing.  Click on the Weekly Weather Impact Briefing on the top menu to download.)
B. listen and check in at the end of both nets, and
C. email CCS Emergency Coordinator Virginia Enzor at nc4va@nc.rr.com with your name, call sign (if licensed), and email address.  The NWS will send you a form to complete with information for their database. Upon completion, an email will be sent to you with the URL to retrieve your Spotter certificate.

Scanner listeners and listeners receiving live streaming audio on the internet at www.broadcastify.com may also participate by downloading the presentations and emailing Virginia Enzor at nc4va@nc.rr.com immediately after both nets. Again,be sure to include your name, call sign (if licensed) and email address.

CoCoRaHS, the Community Colaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network is looking for volunteers. If you like watching and reporting weather conditions, this opportunity is for you! To learn more about this great organization, please visit www.cocorahs.org!

Central Carolina SKYWARN will activate for today’s winter weather event at 10am per the direction of the Raleigh NWS. A Net Control Station will be standing by on the 146.88 repeater to take initial winter weather reports at the changeover from rain to snow. A directed net may follow at the bottom of the hour to take winter weather reports until the event is over or the NWS directs us to deactivate.

Spotters are asked to provide the following criteria in their reports:
• Call sign and Name
• Location
• Precipitation type – snow, sleet, freezing rain or mixed precipitation with predominant type.
• Rate of precipitation – light, moderate, or heavy
• Any changeover in precipitation type
• Measured accumulation/accretion in the past hour
• Measured total event accumulation/accretion
• Temperature (if available)
• Measured wind speed and direction (if available)
• Sustained (not blinking) power outages
• Road conditions

Spotters who cannot make reports via amateur radio may post their reports to the Central Carolina SKYWARN facebook page,  (www.facebook.com/centralcarolinaskywarn) with the same requested information.

Thank you!

Central Carolina SKYWARN deactivated for the winter weather event on January 25, 2013, at 7pm per the direction of the Raleigh National Weather Service.  Thanks to all spotters for their timely reports and to all NCOs for their time and service!

Central Carolina SKYWARN will activate for the pending winter weather event per the direction of the Raleigh NWS. A Net Control Station will be standing by on the 146.88 repeater to take initial winter weather reports at the changeover from rain to snow. A directed net may follow at the bottom of the hour to take winter weather reports until the event is over or the NWS directs us to deactivate.

Spotters are asked to provide the following criteria in their reports:
• Call sign and Name
• Location
• Precipitation type – snow, sleet, freezing rain or mixed precipitation with predominant type.
• Rate of precipitation – light, moderate, or heavy
• Any changeover in precipitation type
• Measured accumulation/accretion in the past hour
• Measured total event accumulation/accretion
• Temperature (if available)
• Measured wind speed and direction (if available)
• Sustained (not blinking) power outages
• Road conditions

Spotters who cannot make reports via amateur radio may post their reports to the Central Carolina SKYWARN Facebook page or email reports to rah.reports@noaa.gov with the same requested information.

Thank you!

Central Carolina SKYWARN has deactivated for this winter weather event for the evening. We will hold one final net on the 146.88 repeater at 6:30am Friday morning to take storm total accumulation reports. Alternatively, spotters may email storm total to rah.reports@noaa.gov. Commuters may also wish to share road conditions regarding black ice.   Thanks to all spotters for their fine reports!

Central Carolina SKYWARN will activate for the pending winter weather event per the direction of the Raleigh NWS. A Net Control Station will be standing by on the 146.88 repeater to take initial winter weather reports at the changeover from rain to snow. A directed net may follow at the bottom of the hour to take winter weather reports until 12:30am Friday. We will resume nets from 5:30am to 7:30am on Friday for total snowfall accumulations and reports of black ice.

Spotters are asked to provide the following criteria in their reports:
• Call sign and Name
• Location
• Precipitation type – snow, sleet, freezing rain or mixed precipitation with predominant type.
• Rate of precipitation – light, moderate, or heavy
• Any changeover in precipitation type
• Measured accumulation/accretion in the past hour
• Measured total event accumulation/accretion
• Temperature (if available)
• Measured wind speed and direction (if available)
• Sustained (not blinking) power outages
• Road conditions

Spotters who cannot reports by amateur radio may make reports to the Central Carolina SKYWARN on Facebook.

SKYWARN Recognition Day 2012 officially takes place Saturday, December 1 0000-2400 UTC. Over 70 National Weather Services offices across the nation, including the Raleigh National Weather Service, are expected to participate in this 14th annual event.

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League to celebrate the contributions that SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service. During a 24 hour period, SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.

Central Carolina SKYWARN, operating under the call sign WX4NC, will join in the fun on Friday night (November 30) from 7-10 PM and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, making contacts on the WB4TQD 146.88 repeater, the K4ITL 147.105 repeater, the K4ITL 147.135 repeater, the Carolina 440 UHF Link System, IRLP (node 9219), and HF (10, 15, 20, 40  & 80 meters).

Radio operators will exchange names, call signs, locations, signal reports, and a 1
or 2-word weather report.

A QSL card will be available for this event. Stations logging a contact with WX4NC may send a SASE envelope to the following address to receive a QSL card:

National Weather Service
Raleigh Forecast Office
1005 Capability Drive, Suite 300
Centennial Campus
Raleigh, North Carolina 27606

Hope to get you in the log!

Virginia Enzor NC4VA
Emergency Coordinator
Central Carolina SKYWARN

The link for the Weekly Weather Impact Briefing has been fixed.  Spotters may now use the following URL to download the briefing:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/rah/skywarn/WeeklyBriefing/SkywarnWeeklyBriefing.pdf

Virginia Enzor NC4VA
Emergency Coordinator
Central Carolina SKYWARN

You are invited to join us on the Central Carolina SKYWARN Information Net on Tuesday, June 19, at 9:15pm on the 146.88 repeater.  Special guest Raleigh NWS Meteorologist-In-Charge Darin Figurskey KC2IPY will present  the Weekly Weather Briefing, including a special Field Day Outlook, and then a program on “Severe Thunderstorm Parameters from the SPC Mesoscale Analysis Webpage”.  Both the Weekly Weather Impact Briefing and program can be  viewed at http://www.erh.noaa.gov/rah/skywarn/WeeklyBriefing/SkywarnWeeklyBriefing.pdf.  (Darin’s presentation is incorporated at the end of the briefing.)

You can also listen to the net via live internet feed at www.radioreference.com.  On the website, please follow these menu choices:  live audio feed> north carolina> wake county> central carolina skywarn

Upcoming opportunities for Basic Spotter SKYWARN Training (all open to the public) include the following:
Tuesday, June 26, 7pm-9pm – Scootworks, 112 N. Church Street, Zebulon (sponsored by Triangle East Amateur Radio Association)
Tuesday, June 26, 5:30pm-7:330pm – Orange County Emergency Services Bldg, 510 Meadowland Drive, Hillsborough
Monday, July 16, 7pm-9pm – Lebanon Volunteer Fire Department, 7900 Russell Road, Durham

73,
Virginia Enzor
NC4VA
Emergency Coordinator
Central Carolina SKYWARNccs

You are invited to join us on the Central Carolina SKYWARN Information Net on Tuesday, April 17, at 9:15pm on the 146.88 repeater.  After the Weekly Weather Impact Briefing by Warning Coordination Meteorologist Nick Petro WX3H, we will take check-ins on the 146.88 repeater and then conduct a test with check-ins on two of our back up repeaters, the K4ITL 147.105 (tone of 82.5) in Broadway and the K4ITL 147.135 (tone of 82.5) in Chapel Hill.  This will be a great opportunity for spotters to check their ability to get into our back up repeaters, perhaps even testing more than one radio.  We encourage you to program your radios ahead of time if you have not already done so.

Folks can now take advantage of on-line Spotter training through the Comet MetED program at https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=23.   The course includes two modules: “Role of the SKYWARN Spotter” and “SKYWARN Spotter Convective Basics” and takes about 2 hours to complete. The Raleigh NWS will honor this training and include individuals who take this online training as part of its database of SKYWARN spotters for central North Carolina.

This is the anniversary of the April 16, 2011 tornado outbreak that devastated NC.  For a detailed summary of the event, please visit http://www4.ncsu.edu/~nwsfo/storage/cases/20110416/.

Folks can listen to our Tuesday night SKYWARN nets and all activations  via live internet feed at www.radioreference.com.  On the website, please follow these menu choices:  live audio feed> north carolina> wake county> central carolina skywarn

73,
Virginia Enzor
NC4VA
Emergency Coordinator
Central Carolina SKYWARN

Beginning Tuesday, February 7, Warning Coordination Meteorologist Nick Petro will present on weekly weather impact briefing for the Central Carolina Skywarn Net.  Find out about potential weather impacts and prepare accordingly as you make your plans.   To see the accompaning slides for his presention each week, please visit  please check http://www.erh.noaa.gov/rah/skywarn/WeeklyBriefing/SkywarnWeeklyBriefing.pdf.

When Central Carolina Skywarn activates, spotters and weather enthusiasts can now listen to transmissions on the WB4TQD 146.88 repeater via the internet by visiting www.radioreference.com or by clicking here.   Folks can also listen to the Central Carolina Information Net each Tuesday evening at 9:15pm.

  To hear your local station, please click here.

CoCoRaHS is a new  program for volunteer weather observers that began September 1 in North Carolina.  Participants measure precipitation daily and enter their reports online.  Users of the data include the National Weather Service, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers, teachers, and more.  Training is available online at the CoCoRaHS website.  To learn more, please visit www.cocorahs.org

Central Carolina SKYWARN welcomes your photos of severe weather and damage taken in any CCS county (Chatham, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Nash, Person, Orange, Sampson, Vance, Wake, Wayne, Warren, Wilson).  Please email photos to Emergency Coordinator Virginia Enzor at nc4va@nc.rr.com; don’t forget to include a brief description, the location of the event, the date and time of the event, and the name of the photographer.  Your photo may be posted to the SKYWARN website, featured in a newsletter, or used in a PowerPoint training presentation. Credit will be given to the photographer. The photo below was taken by spotter Rob Rousseau KI4BKE of Holly Springs on May 20, 2008 at about 5:20PM; the location was Rouse Road and Oliver Creek Parkway.  It depicts the range in size of hail that fell at his location; he wisely included coins for size comparison.