Weather Spotter Training

Today I went to the Weather Spotter Training hosted by Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security, and taught by the National Weather Service. The lady teaching, Mary Jo, was an excellent presenter. She really explained in depth the common mistakes that Weather Spotters make in determining the exact type of weather pattern. I appreciated the fact that she described the difference between a funnel cloud and a tornado too. Which she stated was the contact of that weather phenomena with the earth's surface and the subsequent presence of a debris cloud. For this she had a really interesting picture of a debris cloud on the ground, and only the faintest of funnel clouds in the sky, but she explained that even though it did not appear visible to the eye, it was in fact a tornado.
I was also excited because our very own Kim Kallmeyer, the Director of the Franklin County Community Emergency Response Team, was interviewed by Channel 4 News. I got the opportunity to overhear part of it, and I could tell that she did a fantastic job! Additionally, the meteorologist left his email information so that people could contact him in the future. I intend on getting in touch with him about our Siren Buddies program and seeing if he will run a story on it.
We will keep you posted on how that development goes, and whether or not you can expect to see any of us on the nightly news anytime soon.