Owatonna and Blooming Prairie SKYWARN Training

On March 6, not one but two tornadoes touched down in the state of Minnesota. This was about two weeks before the previous earliest date a tornado had been reported in Minnesota. This only stresses the need for the men and women of SKYWARN.

The Steele County SKYWARN will be holding a spotter training session on Tuesday, March 21, at the Roosevelt School. The school is on McKinley Street in Owatonna and the session will run from 7-9:30PM. There will also be a class in Blooming Prairie at the City Hall on Monday, April 24, at 7PM. These are free classes and the public is invited.

Nationwide there are between 350,000 and 400,00 trained weather spotters. In an average year, these spotters will provide updates on about 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes.

As a spotter for the National Weather Service, you'll learn the basics of thunderstorm development along with learning how to identify potential severe weather and how to report the information.

The Steele County SKYWARN website provides additional information on becoming a weather spotter.