One of the best ways to know when hazardous weather is heading
your way, during day or night, while you're awake or asleep, is with a NOAA
Weather Radio. Click on the above icon to learn more about it. It could
save your life.
Turn Around! Don't Drown!
Internet services providedfor freeby
Alachua County
SKYWARN
Watching the weather!
(Map only updates when things are happening. Grey indicates some other
product has been issued, such as a Severe Weather Statement, or a Special
Weather Statement.)
LATEST WEATHER BULLETIN: (place mouse on text to slow)
Like what you see? Would you like to see this on your own
web page? Alachua County SKYWARN has the capability to FTP these same graphics
and bulletins to your own web page - at no charge*. We'll give you the script
to insert into your web page, and FTP the graphics and bulletins to your site.
Feel free to contact us for
more information! *Some restrictions apply: Offer good only for sites not
designed for profit making.
LATEST NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
AC-EMWIN Project now sending weather bulletins to Twitter!
AC-EMWIN now has a Blogspot blog site!
AC-SKYWARN goes Twitter!
AC-SKYWARN now has a Blogspot blog site!
Changes coming to ACEMWIN-HURR-L listgroup allowing users
to CUSTOMIZE which hurricane bulletins they receive!
New SUITE of weather bulletin listgroups coming for all
surrounding counties with CUSTOMIZABLE bulletins USERS can choose!
We now have the ability to automatically send local area weather alert
bulletins to e-mail and pagers! Click the pager image to learn more about
our free weather alert e-mail and paging program! There is no cost to sign
up! We send no ads! This is not a commercial operation. We can send Zone
Forecast Products, Short Term Forecasts, and other longer bulletins to your
e-mail, and thunderstorm and tornado watches and warnings, and spotter
activation notices to your pager! Tell us what you want and sign up now!
Brought to you as a free public service courtesy of the
Alachua County EMWIN Project!
TO ALL NEW SPOTTER MEMBERS! If you would like to join our
E-mail Alert List and receive
Alachua County SKYWARN-related news, as well as local area weather-related
watches/warnings, and news about further upcoming Spotter Training classes,
then sign up below!
What is Alachua Co. SKYWARN?
Alachua County SKYWARN is an organized system of trained local
spotter volunteers operating under the NWS Severe Storm Reporting
Networks program. "The fundamental objective of Severe Storm Reporting
Networks is to provide timely and accurate reports of severe weather
in support of the National Weather Service (NWS) Severe Local Storm
Warning Program." (NWS Operations Manual, Part-B, Ch. 21, Para. 1)
Alachua County SKYWARN spotters report severe weather-related events occuring
within the county specifically to the Jacksonville Office (NWSO-JAX) of
the National Weather Service, as
well as to local Emergency Management,
helping both to provide better weather watch and warning services to the public.
(Counties in North Florida which are under the purview of the NWS-JAX
County Warning Area (CWA)
include: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist,
Hamilton, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, Suwannee, and Union.)
Alachua County SKYWARN plays host to both Basic and Advanced
NWS Spotter Training sessions, which we've
always tried to offer on a repeating six-month basis (or as is convenient for
the NWS-JAX instructors). These classes are usually taught by NWS personnel.
When sessions become scheduled they will appear in the
SKYWARN Class Schedule.
As it exists at this time, Alachua County SKYWARN consists of mostly
civilians, and a good number of hams. Though it gives you more capability,
you don't have to have a radio at all in order to participate.
The spotter's only real purpose is to LOOK UP, to verify whether a
severe-level event is occuring, and to report what he or she sees, and no more.
ANYONE may participate in SKYWARN. All you really need is to attend at
least a Basic-level training class, and a telephone, or a cell phone, or some
way of communicating what you see to either local Emergency Management and/or
NWS-JAX. Alachua County SKYWARN has helped many hundreds of people get
training in at least BASIC weather spotting over the years since we
formed in 1997.
Alachua County SKYWARN's spotters includes civilians from all walks of
life: doctors, dentists, farmers, lawyers, people in the military, police and
fire/rescue workers, computer programmers, data entry operators, salesmen,
teachers, students, local reporters from the
Gainesville Sun,
WUFT-TV NEWS 5,
the Chief Meteorologist at WCJB/TV-20, and
even an ex-hurricane hunter who used to fly aboard early Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft!