MAKING STORM SPOTTER REPORTS
By Skip Voros, WD9HAS Sullivan Committee Member, Milwaukee Area Skywarn Assoc.
Last Modified December 26th 2008.

 

county warning area map

Text Box: The National Weather Service office at Sullivan accepts reports from any county on this map. All reports require: Time you observed the event, Location you are at, Condition you observed, Source of the report. After becoming familiar with the TLCS format you can generally report even the most catastrophic weather events in less then 40 seconds. This format applies to: The Public & Ham radio.  


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TIME you observe the weather event to the nearest minute. Such as 8:07 AM or 6:36 PM.

LOCATION is your distance and direction from a city center reference point listed below:
 Within your county determine the your distance and compass direction to the nearest city-center or landmark listed below.
(IE, you are 1.2 miles southeast of the Milwaukee city center, or 1.2 miles southwest of Mitchell field Airport.)
Do this for home, work, and frequent mobile locations. Lat and Lon data is provided for GPS users.

CONDITION describes what you are/have experienced:
 Examples: Visibility 2 city blocks from blowing snow, Highway X impassible from heavy snow. Drifts 6-8 feet.
Trees and power lines down from wet snow and ice. 

 SOURCE of the report.  Any combination of your name, agency, ham radio call, ID number, etc.
 


WINTER REPORTABLE CRITERIA
 

 

  Anything You Consider Unexpected or Significant Events
  DAMAGE:  to Trees,  Power Lines,  Home/office, Ice Damage, Ice Jams.
  FLOODING:  Water over the curb, rivers, creeks, streams at or above bank full.
  HAIL:  (specify estimated or measured) 1/4 inch or larger
  HIGH WATER:  Blocking streets/intersections, basement flooding.
  POOR ROAD CONDITIONS.
  RAIN GAGE REPORTS: Include start and end times of measurement.
  SNOW DEPTHS:  Total or new.
   SNOW FALL RATES:  Greater than 3" every 6 hours
  THUNDERSNOW:  Thunder/lightning during snow storm.
  WIND GUSTS:  (specify estimated or measured) 40 MPH or greater
  White Out or Fog Conditions,
  VISIBILITY: When less than 1/2 mile.
 

  Winter reports are submitted by phone, Internet, or Packet radio.
  All reports need the TLCS information.

   Everyone can submit a report via the NWS webpage, use this link: PUBLIC REPORTS  or the unlisted numbers.
  2008 Trained spotters can use the NWS direct link, E- SPOTTER ,the unlisted phone numbers, or the above.
  Ham radio operators can use all the above or WinLink Network. HAM REPORTS . Winter Skywarn nets are very rarely
  used except for extreme situations.
 

 

 

 

SAMPLE WINTER FORMATTING YOUR REPORT

 


“Hello, I'm a trained severe weather spotter. At 6:32 PM, measured 45 MPH wind gust. My location is
2.8 miles Northwest of Beaver Dam, in Dodge County. This is: (your name, ID/call,  number, agency, etc)"

"Hello, I'm a trained weather spotter, My location is 1.0 east of Hales Corners in Milwaukee county.
At 3:30 PM I measured 1/4 inch of ice on the my fence and estimate the same on the power lines.
This is: (your name, ID/call,  number, agency, etc)"

"Hello, I'm a trained weather spotter My location is .7 miles east of Elk Horn in Walworth county.
At 7:45 PM I observed and heard Thundersnow during the current snow storm.
This is: (your name, ID/call,  number, agency, etc)"

"Hello, I'm a trained weather spotter. Driving down Interstate 94 between Waukesha and West Allis is
nearly impassible. Visibility is less than 100 feet, and top speed is about 15 MPH.
This is (your name, ID/call sign, number, agency, etc)"

Reference your location within your county.
 

 

CITY CENTERS & REFERENCES POINTS



COUNTY MAPS: City Center & Reference Points.
 Zoomable Google County maps down to street level.
 
Columbia Dane Dodge Fond
Du Lac		 Green Green Lake Iowa Jefferson Kenosha Lafayette
Marquette Milwaukee Ozaukee Racine Rock Sauk Sheboygan Washington Walworth Waukesha



MOBILE SPOTTERS AND VISITORS.
 Zoomable Google Maps Highlighting:

  Airports
 Hwy 45 Milwaukee Cty to Fond Du Lac Cty
  I-43  Milwaukee To Beloit
 I-43  Milwaukee To Port Washington
 I-94  Milwaukee To Madison
 I-94  Milwaukee to Kenosha
 State Parks & Landmarks

 

 
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First listed by MASA 2/20/03, Airports removed 5/14/04, 1/18/08 All new location points posted, NWS errors corrected 1/26/08,