Learning to spot weather like a pro

Oscar Wilde once said, "conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

One would then likely guess that the Irish poet and playwright never attended a National Weather Service Skywarn weather training course where the talk of weather, and the recent flooding in the area, was neither ho-hum nor hackneyed. Last year's drought, seven months of snow, and flooding around portions of Phillips County gave Patrick Gilchrist and Rex Morgan - from the National Weather Service in Glasgow - plenty of interesting things to talk about during their Skywarn weather spotter training course last Thursday in the basement of the P.C. Library.

"Tonight we are going to talk specifically about severe weather and how to be a weather spotter," Gilchrist said ahead of the class. "There are limitations as to what we can see (at the National Weather Service.) We have all sorts of really nice, awesome remote sensing equipment like radar and satellite, but nothing really beats what's actually going on, on the ground."

Gilchrist said by recruiting spotters in Phillips County (especially in far-off places with not many people) this is a way to fill in the gaps where the sensing equipment is sometimes out of range.

"Then our spotters can call in and tell us what they see and we can utilize that information to calibrate what the day is going to be like," he said. "We are in the information businesses so we take that information and we push it out to let other people know what the hazards are with a storm so they can be safe."

Morgan said that across eastern Montana, there are nearly 1,000 spotters, adding that there is generally good spotter coverage around towns, but spotters become sparse heading out into the country.

"Sometimes it is 20, 30 or more miles between spotters and that can be difficult," Morgan said.

Morgan said that those who weren't able to make the night's class are not out of luck as they can become spotters by taking the course online, at their leisure at https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=23. Note: When you register, there is an option to have your information shared with the NWS. This is an important box to check so they can have your contact information and add you as an official spotter.

"The beauty of it is that you can take it on your own time, from the comfort of your home or office," Gilchrist added. For more information on becoming a weather spotter, people are encouraged to contact Gilchrist at 406-228-2850.