SKYWARN® And Firewise Team Up For Classes To Help Save Lives And Property

Hays County Courthouse, San Marcos, TX – Hays County and the National Weather Service are bringing to Hays County residents a combination class designed to cover the basics of what they should know about severe weather as well as living in wildfire-prone areas in Central Texas.

To help gather critical weather information and to help citizens understand the different types of weather and how it affects them, the National Weather Service established its volunteer SKYWARN^® program to train individuals as severe weather spotters.

These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the NWS. In an average year, 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes occur across the United States, threatening lives and property.

The SKYWARN classes will include the basics of thunderstorm development, fundamentals of storm structure, identifying potential severe weather features, information to report to NWS and how to report it, and basic severe weather safety.

Included in the program in Hays County will be an overview by Clint Browning, Hays County Fire Marshal, about the Firewise program, which teaches individuals and communities in the wildland-urban interface areas how best to adapt to and prepare their homes for living in wildfire-prone areas. 

Free SkyWarn classes will be held from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. on:

• Monday, April 10 – San Marcos Fire Station #5 at 100 Carlson Circle, San Marcos
• Tuesday, April 11 – Kyle Fire Department at 210 West Moore Street, Kyle
• Wednesday, April 12 – Wimberley Community Center at 14068 Ranch Road 12, Wimberley
• Thursday, April 13 – North Hays Fire Rescue Central Station – 400 Sportsplex Drive, Dripping Springs

For more information about the SKYWARN program, visit www.skywarn.org. For more information about Firewise communities, visit www.firewise.org.