Check out the first issue of Storm Spotter News – An online magazine for information and education for the nations’Storm Spotter

A Message from the Dixie Alley Storm Chase Team,

On Saturday July 28th, 2012 at Union University in Jackson, TN… The Dixie Alley Storm Chase Team will be hosting DASCCON-1 Severe Weather Workshop and Conference. The main focus of this event will be educating the general public on how severe weather events impact our communities. There will be two Skywarn spotter training sessions along with a Storm Chaser Car Show, vendor product demonstrations, etc. We will also have two very well known keynote speakers that will share their experiences and insights about severe weather. Our speakers will be…

Chris Chittick (TornadoVideos.net)
Tim Samaras (Twistex)

We are expecting a very large turnout for DASCCON-1 this Summer in Jackson, TN… And we would like to offer you an opportunity to be a part of this year’s event. Also, with the tragic news of the death of storm chaser Andy Gabrielson DASCCON-1 will be held in his honor as a tribute to his contributions to the storm chaser community. You will be able to find an event flyer and sponsor registration forms on our website at http://www.dascon-1.dixiechasers.net

Thank you,

Tim McNeill – The Dixie Alley Storm Chase Team

By JULIE MURPHY, Staff Writer
The Daytona Beach News-Journal

BUNNELL — Trained storm spotters serve as the local eyes for the National Weather Service, and Flagler County has more of them than any other county in the state.

At the end of Monday night’s Skywarn class, the county could tout another 50 added to the number of “advanced” storm spotters, which already tops 1,000, said Bob Pickering, emergency management technician for Flagler County.

“We’re teaching you to be storm spotters and not storm chasers,” said meteorologist Angie Enyedi from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville, who taught the class. “When you start seeing S shapes, you know there is a ‘hook’ which may be the start of a (thunderstorm) watch.”

A formation on radar called “hook echo” shows the beginning of a rotation that could turn into a tornado.

Enyedi’s microburst of information covered everything from cloud formations to thunderstorm development to visual predictions.

“Warnings for thunderstorms are only issued for hail or winds of 58 mph or more,” Enyedi said. “We don’t issue warnings for lightning, because there is lightning with every storm.”

However, lightning is the cause of more deaths in the United States than tornadoes and hurricanes, she said.

“Lightning is the completion of an electrical circuit in the atmosphere,” Enyedi said. “If you are close enough to hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.”

Lightning happens when the negative charges (electrons) in the bottom of a cloud are attracted to the positive charges (protons) in the ground, she said.

The rule is: when thunder roars, go indoors.

Advanced as technology is, Doppler Radar has a “cone of silence,” an area where it cannot detect what is happening.

“This is why we have people like you to help us,” Enyedi said.

Besides reporting actual and potential storm activity, trained storm spotters also report damage.

“Rotation may have been detected, but we don’t know if anything has actually touched down if we don’t a damage report to confirm it,” she said.

Eddie Cail, who took Monday’s class, takes a class at least once a year.

“I take the Skywarn program very seriously,” he said. “Technology is great but it’s limited. I like to have a refresher, because I only want to report accurate information.”

NOAA’s National Climate Extremes Committee, responsible for validating national weather records, has declared a hailstone found last week in Vivian, S.D., to be the largest in diameter and heaviest ever recovered in the United States.

Found after a July 23, 2010, severe thunderstorm by Vivian resident Les Scott, the hailstone is 8.0 inches in diameter and weighs 1.9375 pounds (1 pound, 15 ounces) with a circumference of 18.62 inches.

These measurements displace the previous hailstone record for weight, previously 1.67 pounds for a stone in Coffeyville, Kan., in 1970. They also surpass the record for diameter, which was 7 inches for a hailstone found in Aurora, Neb., in 2003. The Aurora hailstone still holds the record for circumference of 18.75 inches.

“I’m just glad nobody got hurt and hope the town will recover soon,” Scott said.

Read Full Article: Weather.gov