Module 01: Role of the spotter & the warning system

Radar has known blind spots. This lesson gives you the numbers for them, so you can tell when your eyes are the only instrument with the answer. (30 min)  

Three kinds of people stand under the same storm with three different sets of obligations. Which one you are changes what a forecast office does with your call. (20 min)

Most of the rules in this course were written after something went wrong. The timeline is the short version of why the warning system has its current shape, and why spotters are still in it. (25 min)

Six acronyms issue nearly everything you will act on, and they do not do the same job. Knowing which office owns which product tells you who your report is for and when it is worth making. (25 min)

A warning is a structured document, not a paragraph. Read the structure and you can see which parts came from radar, which came from a person, and which line your own report would land on. (30 min)

A warning that nobody receives is a file on a server. This lesson follows the product out of the office and finds the places it stops. (20 min)

Your report does not stop at the forecast office. It scores the warning, enters the national record, and becomes part of the climatology the next generation of forecasts is built on. (30 min)