Spotter Study Materials

NOTE: While we list both spotting and chasing references, here, it does not mean that we support or encourage storm chasing. The reason for the inclusion of storm chasing materials on this page is because a lot of the storm chasing materials often overlap in subject and they can still contain helpful added learning material that a spotter can find just as useful in his or her personal storm spotting educational pursuits.

INDEX:

• Storm Spotting:
  1. FAQs, Guides, and Information Sites
  2. SKYWARN
• Storm Chasing:
  1. FAQs, Guides, and Information Sites
  2. Groups, Organizations
• Technical Discussions, Research Papers, and Essays
• Shops and Other Resources
• Other Severe Storms-related Sites

1. FAQs, Guides, and Information Sites:
   • Training/Guides:
     • Basic Spotter's Field Guide (Adobe PDF format) - NOAA/NWS
     • Advanced Spotter's Field Guide (Adobe PDF format) - NOAA/NWS
     • NOAA/NWS Brochures - NOAA/NWS
     • A Look At Thunderstorms And Thier Severe Weather Potential - An Advanced Severe Storm Spotter Training Slide Series - Al Moller [See "NOAA Severe Storm Spotter's Guide (UIUC), below]
     • NOAA Severe Storm Spotter's Guide (UIUC) - Steven E. Hall and David Wojtowicz, Weather World 2010 Project
     • Severe Thunderstorm Climatology - (aka Severe Weather Climatological Probabilities) - Dr. Harold Brooks, NSSL/SPC - Where and when do severe thunderstorms occur? Nice graphics and animations depicting severe weather seasons (tornadoes, wind, hail) and how they move across the U.S.!!!
   • Storm Features:
     • Identity of Storm Features - Gene Moore - Note: This slide series shows two diagrams from the Spotter Handbooks depicting thunderstorm structure from side and top. HOWEVER, these appear updated from the ones in the Handbooks, showing added placement of the shelf cloud relative to the wall cloud (in the side view), and of the location of the rain-free cloud base in relation to the precipitation (rain/hail). That helps.
     • Cloud Catalog - Univ. of Ill.
     • Cloud Boutique - Plymouth State College
     • Cumulonimbus clouds - Univ. of Ill.
     • Local Weather: Sea Breezes, Land Breezes, and Coastal Fronts - John Nielson-Gammon/Texas A&M Univ.
     • The Semi-official Microburst Handbook Homepage - Fernando Caracena
     • Microbursts - A Handbook for Visual Identification - Fernando Caracena, Ronald L. Holle, Chas. A. Doswell III
     • Jacksonville Downburst - May 27, 1997 - Pablo Santos, Fred Johnson, & Pat Welsh
     • Mesoscale Convective Systems: Squall Lines and Bow Echoes - Morris Weisman, Ron Przybylinski
     • The Structure and Dynamics of Supercell Thunderstorms - Ted Funk, NWS Louisville Science and Technology Page
     • Tornadoes - NOAA
     • Tornadoes - Nature's Most Violent Storms - A Preparedness Guide - NWS/FEMA/ARC
     • Suwannee County Tornado - Sept. 30, 1998 - Pablo Santos & Pat Walsh
   • Severe Local Storms Forecasting:
     • Severe Local Storms Forecasting Primer (book - $40US) - John Sturtevant
     • Forecasting Severe Weather Events - Paul Sirvatka
   • RADAR Tutorials/Understanding RADAR:
     • RADAR Tutorial - Dave Johnson/N0KBD - SKYWARN Central [10/15/2000]
     • SWAT's WSR-88D Mesocyclone and Tornado Signature Case Study Page - SWAT-NSSL
   • Glossaries:
     • A Comprehensive Glossary of Weather Terms for Storm Spotters [PDF] - NOAA Technical Memorandum NWS SR-145 - [Alternate Site] - Michael Branick, NOAA/NWSFO Norman - This is an excellent reference of spotter terms and definitions. Every spotter should study this particular document, especially.
     • Severe and Unusual Weather: Basic Meteorological Terminology - Paul Sirvatka/College of duPage
     • Weather and Climate Glossary - Okla. Climatological Survey
     • Frequently Used Contractions for NWS Products PDF - 'The Front' magazine, - Aviation Weather Center, Kansas City, Missouri - Tucked inside of 'The Front' magazine. Scroll down to the 'Appendix' on Page 7.
   • Safety:
     • Florida Severe Weather Awareness - A Preparedness Guide Including Safety Information for Schools.
     • Severe Weather Safety and Survival Guide - NWS Field Ofc. at Norman, OK
     • Lightning Injury Research - Mary Ann Cooper, M.D., Principal Investigator
     • The Human Effects of Lightning Strikes and Recommendations for Storm Chasers - William T. Hark, M.D.
     • Tornado Safety Tips - FEMA
   • Newsgroups/Mailing Lists:
     • ACEMWIN-HURR-L - Univ. of Florida Listserv
       Atlantic & Gulf Tropical Storm and Hurricane WX products.
       [Courtesy Alachua Co EMWIN Project]
     • Alachua County EMWIN Project (AC-EMWIN) - Yahoo
       The purpose of the Alachua County EMWIN Project (AC-EMWIN) is to disseminate weather-related bulletins and (some) graphics to the general public FREE, at no cost, as a public service. Todd Sherman, Founder/Project Mgr.
     • Alachua Co SKYWARN Email Alert List (AC-SKYWARN) - Yahoo
       AC-SKYWARN news as well as local area severe weather bulletins.
     • ACWIN-FL-ALACHUA-L - Univ. of Florida Listserv
       Alachua County General Weather Bulletins.
       [Courtesy Alachua Co EMWIN Project]
     • ACWIN-FL-ALACHUA-SEVERE-L - Univ. of Florida Listserv
       Alachua County Severe Weather Bulletins.
       [Courtesy Alachua Co EMWIN Project]
     • ACWIN-HPC-L - Univ. of Florida Listserv
       Hydrological Prediction Center (HPC) Bulletins.
       [Courtesy Alachua Co EMWIN Project]
     • ACWIN-SPC-L - Univ. of Florida Listserv
       Storms Prediction Center (SPC) Bulletins.
       [Courtesy Alachua Co EMWIN Project]
     • SKYWARN-L - Univ. of Florida Listserv
       Florida-area SKYWARN discussion group.
     • WX-ATLAN - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
       Atlantic & Gulf Tropical Storm and Hurricane WX products.
     • WX-CHASE - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
       Storm Chaser's discussion list .
     • WX-STORM - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
       SPC storm-related weather products.
     • WX-TALK - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
       WX-TALK General weather discussions and talk .
     • WX-TOR - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
       WX-TOR Tornado Warning dissemination (ALL warnings, nationwide. Be forewarned.)
     • WX-TROPL - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
       Tropical Storm and Hurricane Weather products. (All others NOT Atlantic and Gulf.)
   • Frequencies:
     • U.S. Spotting Frequency List - Keith Brewster/N0IAW [10/14/2000]
2. SKYWARN:
   • Alachua County SKYWARN
   • National SKYWARN Home Page
   • SKYWARN-Texas
   • Index To SKYWARN Web Sites Across The U.S. - Todd L. Sherman/KB4MHH
   • Storm Spotting and Public Awareness Since The First Tornado Forecasts of 1948 - Chas. A. Doswell III, Alan A. Moller, Harold E. Brooks

1. FAQs, Guides, and Information Sites:
   • Frequently Asked Questions about Storm Chasing - Charles Doswell III
   • Selected Internet Resources for the Beginner - Allen Rosenberg - Excellent Site for some of the `How-To's' of severe storms predicting. [ Alternate Site by Jason Persoff ]
   • Storm Chaser FAQ List - Roger Edwards / Tim Vasquez
   • StormTrack Magazine Online - Storm Chaser magazine. A good site. Especially interesting are the numerous educational articles, including: Basic Storm Chaser's Guide, Suggested New Chaser reading Material, Educational Meterial for Classes, When To Chase, The Cap, Dryline Storms/Magic, A Look At the Energy-Helicity Index, Forecasting Supercell Type, Why Chase Tornadoes, and much, much more. [10/14/2000]
   • WX-CHASE - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
     Storm Chaser's discussion list .
   • WX-TALK - Univ. of Illinois Listserv
     WX-TALK General weather discussions and talk .
2. Groups/Organizations:
   • Arizona Thunderstorm Chase Project, NOAA/ASU
   • Severe Hazards Analysis & Verification Experiment NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed - Experimental Warning Program (SHAVE)
   • TESSA, Texas Severe Storms Association
   • TORRO, The United Kingdom Tornado and Storm Research Organisation
   • Valparaiso (Indiana) University Storm Intercept Team
   • Vortex100 Storm Chase Page - R. Lattery

• Severe Storm-related Technical Discussions, Research Papers, and Essays To Help You Understand - at Gilbert Sebenste's Storm Chaser Home Page (see top of page)

• General:
  • The Storm Shop - Sam Barricklow - Chase and SKYWARN video tapes and photos for sale.
  • The Weather Shop
  • WeatherStore ONLINE! - WeatherWatch magazine
• Books, Photos, Videos:
  • WeatherStock - Warren Faidley - Professional prints, film, videos, photo CDs, books, calendars.
• Software:
  • RealEMWIN (by Robert Dale) is no longer supported and users are encouraged to graduate over to WxMesg (below).
  • SimuAWIPS - - SimuAWIPS provides meteorologists, volunteers, students and weather enthusiasts with a free system for conducting basic analysis, tracking and forecasting of weather around the United States.
  • InterWarn / StormLab - StormAlert, LLC - RADAR and storm-tracking softwares.
  • WeatherMessage - Danny Lloyd - Fantastic software by Danny Lloyd to handle EMWIN data and redistribute it in many different ways - to email, FAX, pager, cellphone, listgroups, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Weather Instruments and Equipment:
  • Davis Weather Instruments
  • VAISALA - Lightning detection equipment and services
  • Kestrel Wind/Weather Instruments - NK Enterprises
  • Zephyrus Electronics, Ltd. - Manufactures satellite and radio communications equipment and weather products.
• SKYWARN:
  • Places to Purchase SKYWARN-related Materials - Todd Sherman/KB4MHH

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