My primary emphasis this year in our weather department is increasing "ground truth" for weather events. It is my opinion that our FAR (false alarm ratio) is running too high, and we must have good reports from weather spotters to back up radar signatures. Also, weather reports are critical in weather events like hurricanes, winter storms, floods, and even droughts.
This is the reason for the build-out of our SKYCAM network; live cameras fully controllable in locations all across Alabama. Each SKYCAM site also has a complete set of weather instruments, giving us our own "mesonet" across the state in real time.
While we are building an extensive SKYCAM network, there is no way we can cover all of Alabama with cameras. So....
We are now in the process of building a team of "Skywatchers" across the state. This is not the same as our "online weather watcher" program which we have used for nine years; those are volunteer observers who report daily weather data once daily. A number of our online weather watchers have joined our Skywatcher team.
The Skywatchers will be reporting on active weather whenever needed via instant messaging to the team of meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. We have had a "beta" test group in place for a few weeks, and I believe we are now ready to expand the group.
While we welcome Skywatcher volunteers anywhere; we are especially interested in getting volunteers from rural counties in Alabama where there are no official reporting stations.
We need people who:
*Who are age 16 or older.
*Have a real passion for weather and are interested in learning more about it.
*Have preferably attended at least a basic SKYWARN storm spotter class, or the ABC 33/40 Storm Alert XTREME sessions in the past.
*Have easy access to a computer and the Internet.
*Have a digital camera (still or video), and are willing to share images and video of weather with us.
*Can work together with a team of other Skywatchers around the state in a disciplined Instant Message conference.
You don't need any weather equipment to get involved, but if you do have instruments, that is even better.
Your reports will be used by our team of meteorologists on-air here at ABC 33/40, and will also be relayed to the National Weather Service.
We also welcome Skywatchers from adjacent states, especially Mississippi.
Interested?
Send me an e-mail and tell me a little about yourself. I will then forward instructions to you on how to join us on our 24/7 instant message conference.
James Spann
jspann@abc3340.com
This is the reason for the build-out of our SKYCAM network; live cameras fully controllable in locations all across Alabama. Each SKYCAM site also has a complete set of weather instruments, giving us our own "mesonet" across the state in real time.
While we are building an extensive SKYCAM network, there is no way we can cover all of Alabama with cameras. So....
We are now in the process of building a team of "Skywatchers" across the state. This is not the same as our "online weather watcher" program which we have used for nine years; those are volunteer observers who report daily weather data once daily. A number of our online weather watchers have joined our Skywatcher team.
The Skywatchers will be reporting on active weather whenever needed via instant messaging to the team of meteorologists here at ABC 33/40. We have had a "beta" test group in place for a few weeks, and I believe we are now ready to expand the group.
While we welcome Skywatcher volunteers anywhere; we are especially interested in getting volunteers from rural counties in Alabama where there are no official reporting stations.
We need people who:
*Who are age 16 or older.
*Have a real passion for weather and are interested in learning more about it.
*Have preferably attended at least a basic SKYWARN storm spotter class, or the ABC 33/40 Storm Alert XTREME sessions in the past.
*Have easy access to a computer and the Internet.
*Have a digital camera (still or video), and are willing to share images and video of weather with us.
*Can work together with a team of other Skywatchers around the state in a disciplined Instant Message conference.
You don't need any weather equipment to get involved, but if you do have instruments, that is even better.
Your reports will be used by our team of meteorologists on-air here at ABC 33/40, and will also be relayed to the National Weather Service.
We also welcome Skywatchers from adjacent states, especially Mississippi.
Interested?
Send me an e-mail and tell me a little about yourself. I will then forward instructions to you on how to join us on our 24/7 instant message conference.
James Spann
jspann@abc3340.com
on June 9, 2006, 9:31 pm
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