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Annual Dues must be paid by 4/1

Thursday, April 4, 2013 at Costick Center

The Farmington Hills/Farmington Emergency Preparedness Commission (EPC) will present a free SKYWARN training program on Thursday, April 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Costick Center, located at 28600 Eleven Mile Road between Middlebelt and Inkster.

SKYWARN is a volunteer program developed in the early 1970s as a cooperative effort between the National Weather Service and local emergency management representatives.  There are now nearly 290,000 trained weather spotters across the country who provide reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service (NWS) and help keep their communities safe.

The main responsibility of a SKYWARN spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms.  Information provided by SKYWARN spotters has enabled the NWS to issue more timely and accurate warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and flash floods.  Participants at the training session will learn:

• Basics of thunderstorm development
• Fundamentals of storm structure
• How to identify potential severe weather features
• What information to report
• How to report information
• Basic severe weather safety

The SKYWARN training program will be hosted by the EPC, Oakland County, and Warning Coordination Meteorologist Richard Pollman of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Detroit Weather Forecast Office in White Lake, Michigan.  Advance registration is required.  For more information or to register, call the Costick Center at 248-473-1800.

Governor Rick Snyder and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson have declared the week of April 7 through April 13, 2013 as Severe Weather Awareness Week in Michigan.

Oakland County’s Homeland Security Division will be engaged in various public education efforts during Severe Weather Awareness Week in an effort to help minimize the loss of life and destruction of property that can result from severe weather.

As part of this initiative, a special test of the Early Weather Warning System will be conducted.  The Outdoor Warning System sirens will be activated on Wednesday, April 10 at 1 p.m.

The purpose of the test is to raise the level of severe weather safety awareness and to offer schools and businesses an opportunity to review and test their internal disaster plans.  Residents are asked to publicize the date and time of the test in order to help stop calls to 9-1-1 or to local Police and Fire Departments.