The impacts of hazardous weather are experienced by many Americans each year.  To obtain critical weather information, NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), part of the US Department of Commerce, established SKYWARN with partner organizations.  SKYWARN is a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters.  These volunteers help keep our local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.

Doppler Radar Coverage

This area is on the border of three NWS offices.  Marion County is a part of the Jacksonville area.  Lake County is a part of the Melbourne (southeast of Orlando) area, and Sumter is a part of the Ruskin (south of Tampa).   Each location has Doppler radio; however this area is some distance from all three radar sites and the radar is not very effective below 5,000 feet above sea level.   This means that the weather offices can see that something may be happening and has to depend on the SKYWARN spotter program to tell them what is happing.  The spotter will then contact the NWS office and the County Emergency Manger in regarding high winds, hail, large amounts of rain, and tornadoes.   This information is incorporated into their information and reports are issued to AM/FM radio stations, TV stations, weather radios, and local/state emergency management.