OUR VIEW: You, too, can help spot storm danger

Staff Report
Published: August 21, 2008

» SUMMARY: Storm chasing is just one way to provide useful weather information.

They say the family that plays together stays together.

Chris and Nathan White like to play with lightning.

When the skies over our region start to look menacing and most residents head for cover, the father-and-son storm-chasers from Fredericksburg jump into a car and go looking for the storm.

Their hobby has been glorified on the Weather Channel and in the pages of Culpeper Living, our Sunday feature section, but obviously, it’s not without danger. When they go looking for a storm, they may find a particularly severe one.

Experienced storm chasers will have an escape route planned, but there’s always a chance it could be blocked by a flash flood or a blown-down tree.

They also know the best angle from which to view a storm in terms of contrast and staying out of its path. Yes, there is a best angle — with eastward-moving storms, that would be from the south, but it’s generally from the right flank of the storm, according to the National Weather Service.

Of course, one need not go chasing down tornadoes to take an interest in the weather and even provide the NWS with useful information. In fact, participation can be as active as you want it to be. It could be as simple as keeping a rain gauge in the backyard and phoning in rainfall data.

From time to time, the NWS holds Skywarn spotter classes at sites throughout the region. The classes include Basics I, which covers the essentials of severe weather in a bit more detail than a Weather Channel documentary.

Other classes focus on particular types of hazardous weather, such as flooding, tropical weather and winter storms. Basics I is a prerequisite for those classes.

No Basics I classes were scheduled as of Thursday, but they sometimes are added when there’s enough demand; such was the case with the Warrenton class offered in May.

It’s worth getting in touch with the agency if you’re interested. Just go to weather.gov/washington.