We now have the ability to automatically send local area weather alert bulletins to e-mail and pagers! Our companion project, the Alachua County EMWIN Project, has been providing free weather bulletins to the local and surrounding area public (Since 2002.) We download the latest watches, warnings, and other weather-related bulletins from the NOAA GOES satellites and redistribute them to email, pager, cellphone, and to web pages. If necessary we can even send them to your FAX machine. The bulletins very often arrive at the same time or BEFORE the NOAA weather radio receives them. As well, our system has much more capability than most of the free internet bulletins services available out there, online. For example, we can set you up to receive bulletins from multiple counties, and send bulletins which cover multiple counties at once. The bulletins can be customized to fit your needs, if necessary; and the text can even be abbreviated so that the bulletins fit better if your cellphone or pager has a limited message space allotment, such as 140 characters. Most other bulletin dissemination services aren't able to match these capabilities. The bulletins are available to anyone for FREE as a public service.

Click the pager image to learn more about our free weather alert e-mail and paging program! There is no cost to sign up! We send no ads! This is not a commercial operation. We can send Zone Forecast Products, Short Term Forecasts, and other longer bulletins to your e-mail, and thunderstorm and tornado watches and warnings, and spotter activation notices to your pager! Tell us what you want and sign up now! Brought to you as a free public service courtesy of Alachua County SKYWARN and the Alachua County EMWIN Project!

Click here to view the POWERPOINT PRESENTATION about the ALACHUA COUNTY EMWIN PROJECT that was shown at the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society meeting on Aug. 21, 2003. Choose from PowerPoint version (.PPT), or HTML version. Out grateful thanks to the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society for allowing us to give the presentation during their meeting.

What is Alachua Co. SKYWARN?

Alachua County SKYWARN is an organized system of trained local spotter volunteers operating under the NWS Severe Storm Reporting Networks program. "The fundamental objective of Severe Storm Reporting Networks is to provide timely and accurate reports of severe weather in support of the National Weather Service (NWS) Severe Local Storm Warning Program." (NWS Operations Manual, Part-B, Ch. 21, Para. 1) Alachua County SKYWARN spotters report severe weather-related events occuring within the county specifically to the Jacksonville Office (NWSO-JAX) of the National Weather Service, as well as to local Emergency Management, helping both to provide better weather watch and warning services to the public. (Counties in North Florida which are under the purview of the NWS-JAX County Warning Area (CWA) include: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Marion, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, Suwannee, and Union.)

Alachua County SKYWARN plays host to both Basic and Advanced NWS Spotter Training sessions, which we've always tried to offer on a repeating six-month basis (or as is convenient for the NWS-JAX instructors). These classes are usually taught by NWS personnel. When sessions become scheduled they will appear in the SKYWARN Class Schedule.

As it exists at this time, Alachua County SKYWARN consists of mostly civilians, and a good number of hams. Though it gives you more capability, you don't have to have a radio at all in order to participate.

The spotter's only real purpose is to look up, to verify whether a severe-level event is occuring, and to report what he or she sees, and no more. ANYONE may participate in SKYWARN^®. All you really need is to attend at least a Basic-level training class, and a telephone, or a cell phone, or some way of communicating what you see to either local Emergency Management and/or NWS-JAX. Alachua County SKYWARN has helped many hundreds of people get training in at least BASIC weather spotting over the years since we formed in 1997.

Alachua County SKYWARN's spotters includes civilians from all walks of life: doctors, dentists, farmers, lawyers, people in the military, police and fire/rescue workers, computer programmers, data entry operators, salesmen, teachers, students, local reporters from the Gainesville Sun, WUFT-TV NEWS 5, the Chief Meteorologist at WCJB/TV-20, and even an ex-hurricane hunter who used to fly aboard early Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft!

SKYWARN-related Graphics you can download
Alachua Co. SKYWARN Brochure (PDF doc)
Waldo Wall Cloud Video
Why Do We Need A Local SKYWARN?
Spotter Study and Informational Resources
Upcoming SKYWARN-related Meetings
Local Weather Info & Data
Reporting Criteria
NWS-JAX Severe Weather Report Form
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, CREDITS, and KUDOS

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