People in Grayson County Came Out to Learn About Storms - KTEN.com - No One Gets You Closer

People in Grayson County Came Out to Learn About Storms

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By Cathy Evans, Reporter / Meteorologist - bio | email

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GRAYSON COUNTY, TX -- Want-to-be weathermen got the chance of a lifetime Thursday night. They got to get an in-depth look at how thunderstorms form.

Weather enthusiasts attended a storm spotter class. The National Weather Service from Fort Worth drove up to teach people in Grayson County about thunderstorms and train people on how to relay accurate storm reports.

Over 150 people gathered for the class.

"We rely on spotters quite a bit to issue accurate warnings, you know, radar doesn't cover everything so we really need the eyes in the field to help us out," explains Dennis Cavanaugh from the National Weather Service in Forth Worth.

And storm spotters, they stay put. They don't chase storms.

"What our job is, is to be the eyes on the ground for the National Weather Service located in Fort Worth that they can use to issue severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, etc," explains Harold Peoples, the Vice President of the Grayson County Amateur Radio Network.

Mark Vickrey just wanted to learn more about storms.

"I'd like to be able to spot what I'm seeing. I always like watching storms on my balcony so I don't get wet (laughs)."

Peoples is one of the leaders for Grayson County Amateur Radio Club who relay storm reports to the National Weather Service.

"I'm going to say at any given time during a storm we will have probably ten to fifteen eyes on the storm throughout Grayson County"

The National Weather Service can analyze radar but that doesn't cover everything.

"They cant tell exactly what's going on down at ground level and that's where the storm spotters come in," says Peoples.

So meteorologists rely on storm spotters to report measurements such as wind speed and hail size from a storm over their location.     

"What we want to do is really give people training to help them correctly identify features," says Cavanaugh.