Weather Spotter Training

Last night I attended the NWS Weather Spotter training session in Defiance. I've been a spotter for the last 10 yrs. or so. NWS had to cut back on training locations this year and that resulted in a very full house. I'm sure that Sunday's tornadoes didn't hurt attendance at all. They had a few photos of the funnel clouds and tornadoes that weather spotter took, One of the fire departments had some video. One lady told us that she had a rotating cloud with debris in it go over her house. They think is was the Sherwood tornado skipping over her house instead of through it. Overall it was the best training session I've attended. It was put on by an intern. She was good! Kept things moving and answered questions with little hesitation.

The Sherwood tornado was an ef-0 and it skipped around. As of last night the NWS had not decided if damage at other locations was caused by a tornado or straight line winds. All this took place from about 5 miles and more south of where I live. Sherwood is about 15 miles south of me. Had a couple short downpours and the sun was shining while this went on. I had my trusty camera ready to shoot threatening clouds, but all I saw was a shelf cloud which isn't that unusual this time of year.

Only .49 fell last night. NWS was expecting more. Things are saturated and with the heavier rainfall in the Findlay area, the rivers are going to be overflowing big time when the water gets her. Living in Bryan, I don't expect to be called to fill sandbags in Defiance. They should be able to come up with enough volunteers. More rain is predicted tonight and very high winds tomorrow. It's a "fun time" for weather people