NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The National Weather Service trained first responders and members of the public to be weather spotters on Friday.
SKYWARN is the name of the training program which is used to help spotters coordinate with local emergency management officials before and during storms.
“SKYWARN is a program we use to work with the public and our partners to kind of help fill in the gaps that we have,” said Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Wilmington, Steven Pfaff. “We have weather stations but we don’t have a meteorological station in every location. So we need to help fill in those gaps and the more people who know what they’re observing and how to get that information back to the NWS is just part of that integrated warning team.”
People in the class learn about all types of severe weather including tornadoes, thunderstorms, flooding and even tsunamis.
“You’re helping the weather service by taking training like this but you’re also helping communities downstream of where the weather is occuring,” added Pfaff.
Several North Myrtle Beach Police and Fire officials took the training and Fire Chief Garry Spain said they encourage it.
“We’re trying to educate our firefighters and our police officers [because] they’re out in the field and they’re actually going through some of these events,” he added.
Pfaff used the example of the Cherry Grove Fires after Hurricane Matthew and said the NWS was in constant communication with the Fire Department.
“We were working very closely with the Fire Department to let them know whne the winds were going to diminish enough so they could tactically do their job,” he added.
Firetrucks were not able to respond to the fire for hours because of the high winds.
“That’s just one example of many where we need to work together [for] the public safety’s interest,” said Pfaff.
To learn more about the training and how you can get involved click: here.
