Local News
Local organizations host SKYWARN course
Submitted by Whitfield County government
Whitfield County Emergency Services, with the Dalton Amateur Radio Club and the local chapter of Amateur Radio Emergency Services, joins the National Weather Service (NWS) in presenting the SKYWARN Training Course.
The class is free and will last about two hours. It will be presented on Monday, Nov. 17, at the Goodroe Auditorium in the Memorial Building at Dalton State College starting at 7 p.m. To sign up, call (706) 370-4911. The class is limited to 200.
To obtain critical weather information from a variety of locations, the NWS and partner groups set up SKYWARN, a volunteer program with more than 230,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep local communities safe by sending NWS timely and accurate reports of severe weather.
SKYWARN spotters provide essential information for all types of environmental hazards, but the main responsibility is to report severe local storms. In an average year, the U.S. is affected by 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes. Where appropriate, spotters are also trained on warning signs for earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, volcanic ashfall and coastal hazards such as tsunamis, water spouts and rip currents. Since the program started in the 1970s, SKYWARN information, coupled with Doppler radar technology, improved satellite data and other resources, has enabled NWS to issue more timely and accurate warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash floods.
Anyone with access to a telephone or HAM radio can join the SKYWARN program. Spotters can also submit reports through the Internet on their local NWS Forecast Office Web site. Spotters include police and fire personnel, dispatchers, EMS workers, public utility workers and other citizens interested in weather. The NWS encourages staff at hospitals, schools, churches, nursing homes and other key locales to become spotters.
To get involved, contact the warning coordination meteorologist in your local NWS office. They conduct training and administer the SKYWARN program for a specific local area.
- Local News
-
-
Whitfield County Board of Commissioners meeting agenda
Board will meet Monday at 6 p.m.
-
Dalton man excels at sculpting figures from fantasy to sports
Ten years ago, Kevin Sexton took up sculpting.
The result? Well, there really wasn’t any.
“I started on three sculptures and didn’t finish any of the three,” said Sexton, a Dalton resident. “I was that horrible at it.” -
Property owner charged following cockfight raid
The property owner of the barn in southern Murray County where police raided a suspected cockfight on Saturday was arrested on Wednesday after flying the coop during the raid, authorities said.
-
Teachers draw suspension after helping student
An attempt to steer one sixth-grader away from gangs has cost two North Whitfield Middle School teachers a 10-day suspension without pay.
-
Chatsworth grandmother pleads guilty to embezzling more than $1 million
Just after beginning work at a Whitfield County insurance company in 2002, a Chatsworth woman began skimming from the books to pay off credit card bills and expensive trips.
-
Pleasant Grove hosts fundraiser golf game
-
Hilda Nell Cline Greeson
Hilda Nell Cline Greeson, 60, of 2295 Utility Road, Rocky Face, died Thursday morning, March 18, 2010, at her residence.
-
Fond memories of dance a decade later
Do you remember what you were hoping for as the new millennium dawned, or planning for as the new century began — without a Y2K disaster? Can you recall any of the songs playing on the radio in the year 2000?
-
‘Into the Woods’ opens on the ACT stage
Many of your favorite fairy tale characters come to musical life in Artistic Civic Theatre’s production of the “Into the Woods,” which continues this weekend at the ACT Playhouse in Dalton.
-
Register your Relay For Life team today
The 2010 American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Whitfield County is right around the corner. You can register your team today by visiting the event Web site at http://events.cancer.org/rflwhitfield or by calling the local American Cancer Society office at (706) 278-1960.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Whitfield County Board of Commissioners meeting agenda
