Who We Are
Along with the official National Weather Service forecasts, we strive to be the most informative and credible weather source for the Southwest Missouri area and for anyone having an interest in our regional weather. We are fully endorsed by the NWS, and we maintain a close working relationship with the NWS Forecast Office in Springfield, MO.
Our storm spotting experience ranges from one year to 40+ years. All members have various levels and types of additional training, experience, certification, or coursework including, but not limited to: Meteorology, earth science, atmospheric science, 911 dispatch, law enforcement, planetary sciences, fire sciences, firefighter, fire instructor, First Responder, EMT, CERT, journalism/broadcast media, computer/information systems technology, emergency communications, Red Cross communications, emergency operations management, radio traffic net control for both VoIP Hurricane nets and Skywarn Weather Nets.
What We Do
Skywarn Trained Storm Spotters are made up of all kinds of people from all walks of life. Young, old, and everything in between. All of these people have two things in common: a fascination with severe weather and a desire to volunteer their time to help make their communities safer.
After becoming a trained Skywarn Spotter, one may choose to spend as much or as little time as they would like spotting storms and reporting their observations to the National Weather Service (NWS) or to a net controller via ham radio if there is an active severe weather net. The Net Controller is a direct liaison between storm spotters in the field and the NWS Forecast Office in your area.
The Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn Severe Weather (SMRSSW) team, as part of our mission to protect the public safety and promote weather awareness regardless of the presence of severe weather, provides and maintains multiple sources of daily weather information for the Southwest Missouri area for your convenience. We also strive to provide critical information regarding watches and warnings in the timeliest manner possible. During any severe event, our media sources and regional severe weather nets are staffed continuously for the duration of the weather even for the county warning area.
Whether you are a weather enthusiast, ham radio operator, have a weather-related question or just want to know if you need an umbrella that day, please don’t hesitate to visit this Website and follow us on Twitter @SWMOwx.
You can monitor our amateur radio (ham radio) repeater activity anywhere around the world via our Live Audio Stream. If you are a licensed amateur radio operator, you can check into our nets and use our repeater system via EchoLink. Search for Node Number: 291849 or for N0NWS-R