Storm Spotter Safety Checklist

[Shawn]

Storm Spotter Safety Checklist
By: Shawn Joseph Gossman
(Illinois Skywarn Community / www.ILSkywarn.com)

Welcome to one of my first articles on the Illinois Skywarn Community. This article is about Skywarn Storm Spotter safety and is in the form of a checklist. By reading the following safety tips, you can feel better knowing that you will be able to spot storms safer than before. If you have ideas for other tips, please reply to this article and share them. You may also share this article with various social bookmarking sites and even cut, copy and paste it on other sites as long as my name and credit information stays in tact and a link back to this article page is provided as the source.

1. When driving and spotting storms, you should always take into consideration that people will also be driving to flee from the severe weather event. Make sure you show safety towards them and yourself as they may be in a panic and drive worse than normal because of the fear and panic. Don't be afraid to pull over at a safe distance and let them get out of sight.
2. Be careful when dealing with the weather itself. Lightning can strike you from a storm 10 miles away so you should be cautioned of it. You can also hydroplane at 25 miles per hour and once you do start to hydroplane, you have lost all controls of your steering and brakes meaning you could wreck at any time, so take it slow and use common since.
3. Storm Spotters ARE NOT emergency personnel. This means that you MUST abide by all speed limits, stop lights, stop signs and orders from Police that are blocking roads due to storm events and/or damage. Don't break the law because it will give other spotters a bad name.
4. When calling the NWS to report severe weather, you may consider pulling over to a safe area and then make the call. When driving, you need to focus most all your attention to driving and the conditions around you. Talking or texting on a phone may just get you or others hurt and/or killed.
5. Sometimes this can not be helped but, try not to spot alone. If your with someone else or someone knows where you are, you have a better chance of getting help in case you get into a situation where help is required such as wrecking or getting injured.

I hope you enjoyed my basic spotter safety checklist and remember, be safe out there fellow storm spotters!

[Roger Hayes]

I have a photo of the Dwyer Wind Meter, but it's a pain to upload it here. Write me at rhayes17@charter.net and I'll send it.