eHam.net News for Tuesday 21 April 2015
 

eHam.net News

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Waseca County: Weather Spotters are Eyes, Ears in Emergencies:

Posted: 20 Apr 2015 05:15 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/34439


Miranda Fiebiger said fear drove her interest in weather. "I was so afraid
of storms that I was curious, too," she said. "I wanted to be outside
instead of sitting in the basement, being afraid." She and her husband,
Joel Fiebiger, are trained weather spotters in Waseca County, Minn. If
county emergency-control centers are the brains during weather emergencies,
weather spotters are the eyes and ears. Each year, counties in the region
have scores of volunteer certified weather spotters. When severe weather
approaches a county, emergency management personnel call on volunteers to
go out and watch the storm. Reports from the volunteers are added to
weather warnings on television and radio broadcasts. Gerald Schroeder of
Waseca said he thinks he is Waseca County's longest-serving weather
spotter. Schroeder, 78, has been a volunteer spotter since 1981 or so.