SKYWARN Reporting Criteria in the Warm Season:

HIGHEST PRIORITY/Life Threatening Criteria...please contact the NWS by phone or radio.

• Any deaths or injuries associated with hazardous weather.
• Any TORNADO or WATERSPOUT.

Other High Priority/Life Threatening Criteria

• Funnel or wall clouds.
• Clusters of "Virga" that expand as they descend beneath the cloud base.
• Thunderstorms with wind gusts of at least 58 mph, or that cause structural damage to homes, power lines, or whole trees.
• Hail 3/4 inch in diameter (about the size of a penny) or greater.
• Flooding of rivers or streams into homes or industries.

  • Also stream, river, or poor drainage urban flooding which make roadways totally impassable.
• Rainfall reports following a short (less than 1 hour) torrential downpour

  • e.g., 0.7 inches in 15 mins., 1.2 inches in 20 mins.
• Report 2 inches of rain in 3 hours.
• Report 1 inch of rain or more in an hour (urban areas).

Other Priority Items

During Tropical Storm or Hurricane Warnings...

• Please report only the Life Threatening Criteria listed above.
• Report any wind gusts 58 mph or greater.
• Any KNOWN storm surge inundations of coastal areas.

  • Never go to the shore to investigate it yourself, and EVACUATE immediately if told to do so by Emergency Management Personnel.
• The highest wind gust during the tropical storm/hurricane.
• The lowest barometric pressure and time it occurred.
• Event total rainfall.
  

Page last updated March 17, 2003