Category Archives: Storm Spotting

Dane/Iowa ARES/RACES In-Person Meeting Feb 26

We are meeting in person this week at the Dane County EOC for our monthly in-person meeting. Tom Kucharski, W9TJK, who coordinates Amateur Radio volunteer communicators for the National Weather Service Milwaukee/Sullivan (https://www.weather.gov/mkx/), WI under whose umbrella we reside, will join us to describe how they work with counties in our area. When reviewing the role of Amateur radio communicators in this part of Wiesconsin one of the most frequent concerns that comes up in conversations is related to weather events. We don’t get hurricanes but we get weather which has consistently been a concern on the county and state level. We will meet both in person and virtually on Wednesday evening March 26 at 7PM at the Dane County EOC, 2982 Kapec Rd, Fitchburg, WI 53719. See below for the virtual connection information.

Please also consider these weather related events.

Connection information for In Person Meeting

We do not publicize connection information in this space. If you are interested in joining us for this event and need the connection information please email kc9unz@arrl.net and include your name and call sign.

Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar – 2025

The Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar sponsored by the Midwest Severe Storm Tracking/Response Center will be held this year on March 8, 2025 from 0900 CST to 1530 CST at Madison College, 1701 Wright Street, Madison, WI, Room D1630. It looks to be an interesting program including Alex Harington – Chief Meteorologist, WISC Channel3000, some presentations from Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences; Director, Space Science & Engineering Center UW Madison just to name a few. You will also be able to satisfy the SKYWARN Spotter training on your ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book. For more information please refer to the Seminar website at: https://sites.google.com/view/midwestsstrc-darkskies/home

Storm Spotter Classes Scheduled for Spring 2024

The ARES Standardized Training Plan AKA The ARES Task Book, suggests that all ARES operators should have Storm Spotter Training at least every other year. To support the National Weather Service has scheduled 4 Storm Spotter training in our area (Dane and Iowa Counties) this spring.

The classes are scheduled as follows:

  • March 21, 1:30PM, Iowa County Sheriff’s Department Conference Room
  • March 21, 6:30PM, Iowa County Sheriff’s Department Conference Room
  • April 2, 1:00PM, Mount Horeb Public Library
  • April 2, 6:30PM, FItchburg, Dane County EOC

For more information on attending and on how to register for virtual attendance if needed please go to the NWS web site here: https://www.weather.gov/mkx/spotter-schedule . Please note you may have to register, click on the event in the calendar on the page for any additional information.

2024 Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar

Please add February 24 from 9am-3pm to your calendars for the 2024 Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar held at Madison College at 1701 Wright St and put on by the The MidWest Severe Storm Tracking Response Center (MidWest SSTRC, Inc.). Each year they host a number of presentations on Storm Spotting in our area and the Dane/Iowa County ARES/RACES has an information table at the event. This is also a good reminder that as ARES operators we are expected to attend Storm Spotter Training at least every other year. As soon as classes for 2024 have been published we’ll add them to this site.

Our EC, Jeff, KC9UNZ will be staffing a table with ARES information and answers (hopefully) for any questions people have. He will be bringing stuff to look at. If you’d like to have links to the materials he will have available you can download the Resource List here.

Our latest tri-fold brochure is available as well.