No Storms Expected
NewsThere are 6 more messages available to logged in users only! Login to see them.1/21/2012 - sbluford Spotter Training for 2012 is underway! It's a great way to learn about severe weather or spotting, and its free. Hope to see you in 2012. Here is the Training Schedule Page Throughout eastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas, trained and dedicated individuals monitor the skies around their communities during severe weather events. These storm spotters provide first-hand severe weather reports to their local officials and to the National Weather Service, which are used to make critical warning decisions. Being a storm spotter not only means dedication but also training. Each winter and spring the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service trains members of police & fire departments, emergency management officials and amateur radio operators on spotting techniques. Typically, the training is coordinated by a local group (such as an emergency management agency) and a NWS meteorologist serves as the guest instructor. The goal of the training is not just to recognize tornadoes but to have some understanding of storm structure, which in turn better prepares the spotter for the extreme and unusual circumstances. Other topics covered include an update on the latest NWS technology and procedures, ideas for organizing / coordinating spotter groups, and important safety considerations. The training is free and requires no preregistration. 11/19/2011 - sbluford Recent WebSite Outage Our apologies for the recent web site being unavailable. The auto-renew system for our domain name failed but we have renewed it successfully and do not expect an more issues. Thank you. 4/1/2008 (updated) - sbluford NWS and OkArkSkywarn Weather Alerts via Email - Q&A!! In January, we rolled out an enhanced weather email alert system for our members. This system allows you to register up to 3 email addresses, as well as up to 3 text devices, to receieve any or all of 20+ weather products produced by the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Tulsa. This system is FREE to all members and should be a very positive addition to the tools used by Emergency Managers and Skywarn volunteers in helping to protect our communities. It is also just a great way to stay up to date with weather and be alerted of developing situations of interest to you. There are three steps required to use the system. 1. Have an account on the www.okarkskywarn.org website. 2. Register your email and text devices on the website. 3. Select the products, counties, and alert levels that meet your needs. That's it!! There have been a few questions as expected, so we will be creating a FAQ for this service soon. In the mean time, if you have any questions feel free to send them to us at: okarkskywarn@valornet.com We also welcome any feedback on this new system, good or bad, so let us know! 1/4/2007 (updated) - sbluford Gibson Ridge Radar Software Several have asked about the Gibson Ridge Radar Software. You can download it at www.grlevelx.com. What is known as Level III WSR-88D data are available free and the GRLevel III software ($80) is hard-coded to retrieve the free data. The Level II WSR-88D data are a more raw form of the information and not as widely available. Iowa State University feeds data from all 88D sites for free. I will edit this soon with the URL for this data feed. The Level II software ($250) can make 3D radar images. These same Level II data, plus a lot of other really good data sets (including APRS positions) are available from Allison House for a small fee...about $20 / month...at: http://www.allisonhouse.com/ The Gibson Ridge software allows you to load GIS shape files to display any map background you can find or make. You can also plot other data in the software...WFO Tulsa has some experimental feeds that plot storm reports and our outlooks (warnings are plotted automatically in the software). You can find free surface data plots...including Mesonet...and SPC watches at: http://grlevel3.tornadocentral.com/ We will have this software on the net controller desk soon. |