What Spotters/Aspiring Spotters/Hungry Farmers Want to Hear (?)

[Dustin Wilcox]

I was asked to speak at an upcoming Severe Weather Workshop/training deal, sounds like historically it's a fair sized event with well over 100+ people attending (being in the Backyard of the Hallam Tornado helps the pull factor, the free meal probably doesn't hurt either). But anyway, I guess I'm following the "Spotter Training" spiel by the local NWS, we all know how intriguing those are to listen too That being said I'm likely going to be dealing with a tired audience, already sick of hearing about the science behind severe weather. I was asked to speak for 30-45 min. about "chasing" specific request I know... So as spotters, or those who have presented to a group of "spotters" (likely 95% farmers just there for the free meal) what do they want to hear, or better yet, what will at least keep the majority from falling a sleep? Second to someone covering for me, it'd pretty awesome if someone already had some powerpoint or outline of stuff to talk about, I suppose I could settle for just some ideas as well...Otherwise I might just resort to 30 minutes of video...

 

[Jesse Risley]

I did a presentation last summer to a ham radio club in Central Illinois, along with fellow chaser Mike Brady. Most of the attendees were trained spotters too.

I believe the presentation needs to fit the audience first and foremost. How much knowledge does the average attendee have about severe weather? I would suggest using the Socratic method as much as possible to engage your audience.

We decided to discuss some tools/websites that were useful for examining forecasts a few days out, up until the actual unfolding of the event (e.g. NAM, GFS, RUC, Mesoanalysis). There was also some explanation and demonstration of technology and chasing/spotting (e.g. Spotter Network, radar software programs, live streaming, etc.). Videos are always a great tool, and they seem to captivate the audience far more than a droning lecture on supercell structures. We wanted the audience to walk away understanding that chasing realistically involves lots of hours on the road, the need to practice decent forecast skills and of course hours of down time for a fraction of the time, if you're lucky, as a return investment of shear adrenalin and success.

By and large, a significant portion of time was devoted to letting the audience answer questions, as this seems to reduce the boredom factor by allowing for more direct, participatory education.

 

[Jason Tunzer]

Hey Dustin, is this for the CPSWS?

 

[Dustin Wilcox]

Jason it's the Regional Severe Weather Seminar in Wilber, I believe the day after the CPSWS...I've not got much information on the event yet...