TCARA

SKYWARN® is a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Although SKYWARN spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, the main responsibility of a SKYWARN spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms.

The National Weather Service encourages anyone with an interest in public service and access to communication, such ham radio, to join the SKYWARN program.

SKYWARN training is offered multiple times during the year at TCARA meetings, as NWS time and funding permits.

During events of severe weather, the NWS office in Binghamton, using call sign WX2BGM, contacts Tompkins County SKYWARN spotters on TCARA repeaters. Priority reports can be emailed directly to NWS at bgm.stormreport@noaa.gov.

Any ham can and should open a SKYWARN net on the primary repeater whenever a warning is issued by the National Weather Service for Tompkins County.

• New York State SAME Weather Radio Codes