Skywarn
Skywarn or SKYWARN is a network of voluntary weather spotters spread across several countries , who have made it their task to inform the population of extreme weather events such as storms in a precise and timely manner through their coordinated weather observations . As a rule, there is close cooperation with the respective weather services , media and various other partners, whereby in the case of Skywarn Germany, an association founded on October 16, 2003 with headquarters in Osnabrück , TorDACH should be mentioned in particular .
The warnings on the type and severity of the storms are, in contrast to the mostly precautionary, spatially and temporally extended storm warnings from the weather services only directed to people who are actually and directly threatened by a storm. This has the advantage that the warnings can be better used by the individual than a comparatively unspecific storm warning with long lead times and the associated uncertainty as to when and whether the storm will finally occur. Last but not least, such unspecific warnings are often ignored.
Against this background, Skywarn is not to be understood as competition to the weather services and their storm warnings, but as an important addition to previous weather warnings, which in all criteria cannot be as precise as the observations made on site. However, the number and density of the observation network of spotters is also decisive, whereby Skywarn Germany is currently still under construction.
In the USA , however, Skywarn is already established and has been very active for several decades with thousands of weather observers.
Other severe weather warning systems
- Other storm warning systems are Meteoalarm and WIND .