HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – There is a group made up of volunteers who look to the skies in Ottawa County called Ottawa County SkyWarn.
These volunteers are activated by Emergency Management officials when the skies turn dark and servere weather is forecasted. They are the “Eyes on the Skies” and assist the National Weather Service and Emergency Management with reporting severe weather.
The SkyWarn Team is overseen by the SkyWarn Steering Committee and consists of two parts, the EOC Task Force, and Net Control.
EOC Task Force: These individuals report to the Ottawa County Emergency Management EOC-Communications Room when severe weather is imminent. This is called a “SkyWarn EOC Activation”. From the Communications Room, Task Force members monitor severe weather via radar and monitor radio traffic to determine where concentrations of calls are in the county in order to help the Emergency Management Director and other officials determine whether or not to isolate the incident as an aid to Central Dispatch.
Net Control: Unlike the EOC Task Force, Net Control is a function that may begin outside of the EOC Communications Room and be drawn into that room later to join the Task Force if the situation warrants. The Net Control Operator accepts phone calls or “check-ins” via Amateur Radio (“the Net”) from trained Weather Spotters reporting what they see outdoors in the sky during severe weather.
Spotters: These individuals are trained annually to recognize clouds indicative of particularly dangerous severe weather such as tornados, large hail, or heavy winds, ice or heavy snowfall. Spotters can report what they see to the SkyWarn EOC Task Force, the Emergency Management Director, or the National Weather Service. We rely on these individuals for a couple of different reasons.
1. To confirm what the radar is reporting.
2. Due to the elevation angle of the radar, it is not always possible to see everything that is going on inside the storm. In Ottawa County, the radar has trouble seeing anything below 700 feet on the eastern border to 2000 feet on the western border. A lot can happen below the radar’s coverage, so these individuals are important to us to give us the information we need to help keep the citizens of Ottawa County safe.
If you’d like more information on how to join the SkyWarn team, please give Chris Saddler in Emergency Management a call at 616-738-4052 or email her at csaddler@miottawa.org.
