Severe Weather and Ham Radio Skywarn Activation and NWS Chat Room

During times of severe or impacting weather, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Pendleton will activate a Skywarn Net and a certified ham radio Net Control Operator (NCO) is called upon to arrive at the office. The NCO monitors the offices ham radio equipment and when a severe weather report is received, it is written down and then verbally relayed to the Forecasters in the office.

With a limited number of Forecasters certified to operate the offices ham radio equipment, the question was, how could we involve all Forecasters in the ham radio program? If so, this could reduce the time when receiving severe weather reports from the NCO which could lead to an increase in warning lead times and verification. Also how could we activate the Skywarn net more frequently without calling into the office a NCO? Finally, how can we utilize an asset that involves hundreds of active ham radio operators in our county warning area (CWA) into an even more organized manner to relay severe weather reports to the NWS?

The vision was to actively reach out to amateur ham radio operators and provide a, Weather and Ham Radio presentation for each of the six newly named ham radio sectors within our CWA. The outreach program was a great success having over 70 ham radio operators receiving training in basic weather reporting criteria and effective communication with the NWS. Also nearly 30 NCO s were recruited and the sectors were expanded from six to nine sectors. The outreach program further increased our cooperation and collaboration among ham radio operators throughout the CWA.

In addition, a NWSChat room (pdt-ham-chat) was developed to eliminate the need for an NCO to be present in the office when activating a Skywarn Net. The NCO can now remain in their sector and communicate by using the chat room and instantly send severe weather reports to any Forecaster without them being certified to operate a ham radio.

The chat room was tested and later put into operation several times this year including during a winter weather event. Last winter the office activated a Skywarn Net for six sectors and received over 60 reports using the NWSChat (pdt-ham-chat) and all six sectors verified the warnings.