The San Angelo National Weather Service’s annual SkyWarn weather spotter school was in Brownwood Saturday, despite federal cutbacks that threatened the school last year. Warning Coordination Meteorologist Hector Guererro (pictured) said, “As long as we can squeeze it into the budget, the spotter schools will continue due to the importance of weather spotter information and training. It’s vitally important to keep qualified spotters updated on technology, the principles of hydrology, and the science of meteorology as it applies to severe weather in west central Texas, particularly Brown County and the contingent counties.”
Brownwood Amateur Radio Club President Rich Dugger estimated that 47 people attended the Brown County SkyWarn Weather Spotter School Saturday, co-sponsored by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Brownwood Amateur Radio Club (BARC), and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). Meteorologist Hector Guerrero taught the school for the twelfth consecutive year. The school is to update Brown County SkyWarn’s certified weather spotters who serve in times of inclement weather. They donate their time, vehicles, equipment, and resources to bring information that is vital to the NWS mission.
Students were updated on the latest technology in weather detection and forecasting, with an emphasis on tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms. Guerrero said, “despite the latest in radar soundings and technology, the fact remains that the NWS radar cannot see anything below about five thousand feet about Brownwood. That’s where our trained weather spotters come in. The more accurate and detailed their observations are, the more information we are able to pass along to local emergency response organizations, and the public in general.”
Guerrero also said, “Our ham radio operators are a vital link in the safety of the general public because they use their own personal equipment which is usually state-of-the-art and meets strict federal standards for mobile communications.”
Brown County’s weather spotters are coordinated by Bill Fraser who owns, operates, and maintains his own digital weather station in northeast Brownwood. Fraser’s station is connected to the NWS in San Angelo. Fraser tracks weather spotters and assigns them to various areas in the county based on the need for information in a particular area. Fraser and the NWS track the weather spotter’s location using Automatic Position Reporting Systems (APRS), which transmits the spotter’s exact latitude and longitude coordinates using geo-stationary satellites in the global position satellite network (GPS). Brown County has 22 active NWS Certified Weather Spotters in all four Brown County precincts, and they are on call 24/7.
