The Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association (MASA) [pronounced “May-sah”], established in 1992, and incorporated in 1995 is a Wisconsin registered non-profit and I-R-S 501(c)3 tax exempt corporation operated for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes. Our mission is to lessen the burden of the National Weather Service (NWS) essential severe weather training and SKYWARN programs. To do this MASA has established a long and strong working relationship with the NWS by providing on-going severe weather awareness and training to all interested parties.

SKYWARN is a nation wide NWS program of volunteer “storm spotters” who are trained to Identify, Evaluate, and Report severe weather events.These volunteers come from all walks of life, but are frequently fire or police personnel, emergency response groups, ham radio operators, and concerned citizens. A keen interest in weather and community service is a common bond. They support their local communities and governments by providing the NWS with ground-truth reports in real time of tornadoes, large hail, property damage, flooding, snowfall amounts, etc. These storm spotter reports assist meteorologists to correlate Doppler radar data to issue the appropriate statements and warnings in a more timely manner. Thus protecting life and property. Storm reports a typically relayed to the NWS by 800 telephone, 9-1-1 centers, online reporting, Facebook, Twitter, and amateur (ham) radio channels. The Skywarn program was originally developed by the NWS after the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak (271 killed, 1500 injured). As of January 2013 there are and estimated 350,000 volunteers nation wide and some 150 Skywarn groups that partner with the NWS. Milwaukee Skywarn represents a local element of the national program.

Needless to say, we cannot provide these community services functions without the continued support of concerned individuals and committed business leaders like yourself.