April 11, 2026 • 11 mins
Not all of us can be a meteorologist, but any of us can help them ensure their severe weather warnings and forecasts are as accurate as possible. While the forecasters have a lot of tools available at their disposal, there's nothing quite like eyes on the ground, and that's where you come in. Hundreds of thousands of people around the country are trained as part of the SKYWARN Spotter Network, and local classes are starting soon if you want to get involved. National Weather Service Boston's Lead Meteorologist, Bryce Williams, shares details with Nichole in this week's episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week right here, we come together, we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Great to have you back with us this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. We're transitioning now, of course, out of
a bitter cold winter that had blizzards and ice storms
and all sorts of uncomfortable weather, and now we're moving
(00:28):
into the season of extreme heat and thunderstorms, even tornadoes.
The National Weather Service, no matter what season it is,
is working hard to keep track of all of this
severe weather and they put out critical warnings. We need
to make sure we stay safe and prepared for whatever
is coming through. Trouble is New England has six states
and there's only a few forecasters in each office, so
(00:48):
they can't be everywhere. That is where you can help.
The sky Warm Weather Network is a volunteer program run
by the Weather Service, and anybody who likes severe weather
or just weather in general can get involved. All you
have to do is know what you're looking for, and
your job is simple. You look at what's happening in
front of you, developing weather wise. You report back to
the forecast office what you see, and then your data
(01:10):
can help them craft an even more accurate forecast or even,
in some conditions, a severe weather warning. Let's talk about
how you can get involved here. Bryce Williams is the
lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Norton. He
is leading this new round of courses to get us
all trained up on the skyworn network. So, Bryce, it's
great to have you here. Thank you so much for
the time. I know you're busy. Before we get into
(01:31):
the courses, tell us more about this network and how
it all works.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Sure, So, skyworn has been around for decades. I started
back in the seventies, and it's basically a way for
us to utilize what we like to call citizen scientists,
so basically just the members of the public that are
interested and willing to help us to report weather that
they see to us. So especially it comes into play
when we're talking about severe weather, so talking about identifying
(01:58):
dangerous hails, damaging tornadoes, things like that.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, I am not a meteorologist. Part of me wish
as I was, but I was really bad at math.
So how can you trust that those of us who
are not as well trained as you all in the
weather space. How do you know what information to trust
and how all this is supposed to work.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, that's a great question, and I think you are
not alone in the fact that you're a kind of
a lover of weather just as a kind of hobby
or just an interest. A lot of people will say
that I just am fascinated by the weather, and so
they are interested in doing any even a small part.
And this is a small part that anybody can do.
And so the point of the class is to teach
(02:38):
people exactly what to look for and what they're seeing means,
so that when they do see something, they know what
that might mean for the future. So, say we might
teach them about a certain type of cloud, like say
a shelf cloud that we call which means that strong
winds are on the way. Things like that they can identify,
(02:59):
and one that they take at the class. We know
that they have had the training and so we can
kind of trust more of what they're telling us is accurate.
Not that we won't, you know, take reports from the
general public without the training, but this helps us to
be more confident, especially if we're going to be issuing
warnings based off of these reports. Because about a third
of our warnings, so severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings,
(03:21):
about a third of those come because of reports from
spotters versus just seeing something on the radar.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, how big is your network right now? Sky Warren Spotters.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So we have thousands and thousand, but tens of thousands
of people that have been trained across the country. And
so we've been doing this for so many years and
so many offices. We have one hundred and twenty two
different forecast offices across the country and all of them
host classes just like these every spring, every severe weather season.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And we've been doing it for decades.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Like I said, so we've trained tens of thousands of people,
and you know, the amount of reports we get, it
all depends on where people live, you know, in doing
the Obviously we don't live in Tornado Alley, so we
don't get as many, quite as many spotters as they
do out.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
In Oklahoma, but we have a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We've trained thousands here and we really are appreciative of
every single one of our participants that we've trained over
the last few decades.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, and it's interesting too, because climate change right the
weather here in Massachusetts is changing you say, we don't
live in tornado Alley, and yet last year we had
a lot of tornado warnings for this neck of the woods.
You know, I've been I'm a lifelong New Englander and
my winters are looking very different and my summers are
looking very different. So I'm sure that the need for
more spotters is always there to watch these changes in
(04:39):
our climate.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Exactly. You're exactly right.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And like I tell people when they ask them, is
the climate really changing? And I say, you know, well,
have you lived in New England for your whole life?
And if they say yes, I ask, you know, one
of the the winters of the last decade, do they
feel like the same winters that you experienced as a kid,
And they always everyone said no. And so it's just
a thing that that's happening. And there there's more heat
(05:01):
in the atmosphere and that's fuel for storms. And so
you know, you mentioned the tornadoes and most people think,
you know, New England we don't get tornadoes, but we do.
We on average we get about six to eight tornadoes
in south of New England every year and it can
it can vary year to year. So last year we
had a handful of the year. I think it was
two years ago we had thirteen tornadoes in southern New England.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
You know, they were all on the weaker.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Side, fortunately, but we get we can get a lot,
and so it's good for people to stay aware, not
only for reporting purposes for us, but also for their safety.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Getting on social media, I know you all have a
pretty good social media presence on Facebook and x and
all those other options that people can use. But I'm
sure for the spotters too. It's not like yesteryear where
you had to just kind of call it in and
try to describe like I think this is a shelf cloud,
but I'm not really sure. Now we've got videos, we've
got photos. That's going to make your child a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It really has.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And we always encourage people when they're reporting, if you
have a picture, we'll we'd love to have it because
exactly like you said, when especially with for instance of
reporting hail, you know, people might not have a quarter
around who's compared to see if it's the size of
a quarter, or might not have handy things to tell
us what size it is. But if you have a
picture of it that it makes it our job is
(06:14):
much easier and we can know is it severe sized tale,
which would be an answer larger, or is it just
you know, is it pe sized tale. So pictures, videos,
those are always really helpful. Obviously we'll take reports even
if it's just verbal or without a picture or video,
but they do help.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So what happens in a sky warn class? We show up,
we sit down, what are we going to learn?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So sky one classes range anywhere from an hour and
a half to two hours, depending on how many questions
people have at the end, which is kind of my
favorite part. So basically you'll show up. These classes run
from six to eight in the evening and we have
about nine of them scattered across southern New England. You
go to the closest one to your location. You show
(06:55):
up and basically myself or one of our meteorologists from
my office would be there and they are going to
lead you through a class talking about various topics from
what the National Weather Service is, who we are, kind
of what we do briefly. Then we'll move into talking
about the ingredients of a thunderstorm, what you need to
get a thunderstorm, how it happens, it's life cycle features
(07:17):
that you can identify like shelf clouds and wall clouds
and what they mean, as well as the various hazards
from storms that we're looking for, things like hailstones and
damaging winds, and we'll talk We'll move on to talk
about how to stay safe through various types of storms,
so tornado safety, say, safety from lightning, things like that,
(07:39):
and we talk about what kind of hazards are specific
to southern New England, what are the most common types
of surveyor whether we get here in where we live.
And then finally what to report and how to report
it to the National Weather Service office. And then the
end we open it up for questions from anybody about
anything that we did talk about or anything just.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Weather in general.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Is there a quiz at the end?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
There is no quiz. So you if you've taken the class,
you've passed fabulous.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I mean, you know, people think, oh, class, I don't know,
I'm gonna have to take a test. No, literally, just
show up and learn really cool stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So you said that there are classes all over New England.
Tell us about when and where people can go and
check this out.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Sure, So we have classes all the way through live
in person classes all the way through May sixth. That's
our last, our final one in person that's in Beverly,
mass But then if you we have I believe nine
in person across Connecticut, Mass, Jews Cent, Rhode Island. And
then if you aren't able to attend any of those,
we do have a virtual option, a live virtual option
(08:43):
on May twenty first, that I'll be leading. That one
will be at seven pm on the twenty first, And
so you can go to our website whether do gov
slash Boston and you can either navigate to our Skyward
page from there, or you can just add on to
that ere whether do gov Flash Boston slash Skyworm, and
that'll take you to the page where you'll see our
(09:03):
training schedule. You can see all the classes listed and
the link to register.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Okay, and it's free too. That's the best part. We
love a free education exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's free and open to anybody, no age, no age.
We used to say, oh, you need to be at
least over sixteen but to report, but we've kind of
eliminated that and we open.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
It to everybody.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Beautiful, and you know, if somebody's listening, this is a podcast,
and people from all over the country listen to this show.
If they want to get skyworn training but they're not local,
is it worth doing the virtual one for New England
or should they reach out to their own offices?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Sure? I think I think both are are valid.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So the training that you'll get from our class is
going to really cover most everything that you would get
from other locations. Now, if you say live in Tornado Alley,
I would encourage you to sign up, go to the
wather I go on whatever state you live in. Where
you live, it'll take you to your local offices page
(10:04):
and they should have a Skyworn link on their page
and with their training options. I would encourage you to
take a local class if you can, because while a
lot of the content is going to be the same,
there would be some local knowledge that they're going to
have that I won't be able to address because we
have a lot of states and territories that have a
(10:24):
lot of different micro climates and things like that. So
I would encourage you, if you can, to take a
local class, but we definitely would welcome you.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
In our virtual class as well.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Phenomenal all right, and of course weather dot gov slash Boston.
As we get into severe weather season, not of the
snow kind. You know everything you need. You all are
working hard over there in your in and if people
want to sign up for information, if they need alerts,
weather doc, Gov slash Boston is the place correct.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That is correct whether or not you take one of
our classes. Be weather aware, have multiple ways to get
your severe weather warnings as we go into the spring
in the early summer, that's when our peaks. If your
weather season is and just be aware of what's happening
so you can stay safe.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, for sure, WBZ is one of those ways. We
are working with you all over at the Weather Service,
and you do such a great job, so we thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
For that and we appreciate your partnership absolutely. All Right.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Bryce Williams from the National Weather Service over in Norton,
thank you so much for the time.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week right here, we come together, we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Great to have you back with us this week.
I'm Nicole Davis. We're transitioning now, of course, out of
a bitter cold winter that had blizzards and ice storms
and all sorts of uncomfortable weather, and now we're moving
(00:28):
into the season of extreme heat and thunderstorms, even tornadoes.
The National Weather Service, no matter what season it is,
is working hard to keep track of all of this
severe weather and they put out critical warnings. We need
to make sure we stay safe and prepared for whatever
is coming through. Trouble is New England has six states
and there's only a few forecasters in each office, so
(00:48):
they can't be everywhere. That is where you can help.
The sky Warm Weather Network is a volunteer program run
by the Weather Service, and anybody who likes severe weather
or just weather in general can get involved. All you
have to do is know what you're looking for, and
your job is simple. You look at what's happening in
front of you, developing weather wise. You report back to
the forecast office what you see, and then your data
(01:10):
can help them craft an even more accurate forecast or even,
in some conditions, a severe weather warning. Let's talk about
how you can get involved here. Bryce Williams is the
lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Norton. He
is leading this new round of courses to get us
all trained up on the skyworn network. So, Bryce, it's
great to have you here. Thank you so much for
the time. I know you're busy. Before we get into
(01:31):
the courses, tell us more about this network and how
it all works.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Sure, So, skyworn has been around for decades. I started
back in the seventies, and it's basically a way for
us to utilize what we like to call citizen scientists,
so basically just the members of the public that are
interested and willing to help us to report weather that
they see to us. So especially it comes into play
when we're talking about severe weather, so talking about identifying
(01:58):
dangerous hails, damaging tornadoes, things like that.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, I am not a meteorologist. Part of me wish
as I was, but I was really bad at math.
So how can you trust that those of us who
are not as well trained as you all in the
weather space. How do you know what information to trust
and how all this is supposed to work.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, that's a great question, and I think you are
not alone in the fact that you're a kind of
a lover of weather just as a kind of hobby
or just an interest. A lot of people will say
that I just am fascinated by the weather, and so
they are interested in doing any even a small part.
And this is a small part that anybody can do.
And so the point of the class is to teach
(02:38):
people exactly what to look for and what they're seeing means,
so that when they do see something, they know what
that might mean for the future. So, say we might
teach them about a certain type of cloud, like say
a shelf cloud that we call which means that strong
winds are on the way. Things like that they can identify,
(02:59):
and one that they take at the class. We know
that they have had the training and so we can
kind of trust more of what they're telling us is accurate.
Not that we won't, you know, take reports from the
general public without the training, but this helps us to
be more confident, especially if we're going to be issuing
warnings based off of these reports. Because about a third
of our warnings, so severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings,
(03:21):
about a third of those come because of reports from
spotters versus just seeing something on the radar.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, how big is your network right now? Sky Warren Spotters.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So we have thousands and thousand, but tens of thousands
of people that have been trained across the country. And
so we've been doing this for so many years and
so many offices. We have one hundred and twenty two
different forecast offices across the country and all of them
host classes just like these every spring, every severe weather season.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
And we've been doing it for decades.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Like I said, so we've trained tens of thousands of people,
and you know, the amount of reports we get, it
all depends on where people live, you know, in doing
the Obviously we don't live in Tornado Alley, so we
don't get as many, quite as many spotters as they
do out.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
In Oklahoma, but we have a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We've trained thousands here and we really are appreciative of
every single one of our participants that we've trained over
the last few decades.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, and it's interesting too, because climate change right the
weather here in Massachusetts is changing you say, we don't
live in tornado Alley, and yet last year we had
a lot of tornado warnings for this neck of the woods.
You know, I've been I'm a lifelong New Englander and
my winters are looking very different and my summers are
looking very different. So I'm sure that the need for
more spotters is always there to watch these changes in
(04:39):
our climate.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Exactly. You're exactly right.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
And like I tell people when they ask them, is
the climate really changing? And I say, you know, well,
have you lived in New England for your whole life?
And if they say yes, I ask, you know, one
of the the winters of the last decade, do they
feel like the same winters that you experienced as a kid,
And they always everyone said no. And so it's just
a thing that that's happening. And there there's more heat
(05:01):
in the atmosphere and that's fuel for storms. And so
you know, you mentioned the tornadoes and most people think,
you know, New England we don't get tornadoes, but we do.
We on average we get about six to eight tornadoes
in south of New England every year and it can
it can vary year to year. So last year we
had a handful of the year. I think it was
two years ago we had thirteen tornadoes in southern New England.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
You know, they were all on the weaker.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Side, fortunately, but we get we can get a lot,
and so it's good for people to stay aware, not
only for reporting purposes for us, but also for their safety.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Getting on social media, I know you all have a
pretty good social media presence on Facebook and x and
all those other options that people can use. But I'm
sure for the spotters too. It's not like yesteryear where
you had to just kind of call it in and
try to describe like I think this is a shelf cloud,
but I'm not really sure. Now we've got videos, we've
got photos. That's going to make your child a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It really has.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And we always encourage people when they're reporting, if you
have a picture, we'll we'd love to have it because
exactly like you said, when especially with for instance of
reporting hail, you know, people might not have a quarter
around who's compared to see if it's the size of
a quarter, or might not have handy things to tell
us what size it is. But if you have a
picture of it that it makes it our job is
(06:14):
much easier and we can know is it severe sized tale,
which would be an answer larger, or is it just
you know, is it pe sized tale. So pictures, videos,
those are always really helpful. Obviously we'll take reports even
if it's just verbal or without a picture or video,
but they do help.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
So what happens in a sky warn class? We show up,
we sit down, what are we going to learn?
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So sky one classes range anywhere from an hour and
a half to two hours, depending on how many questions
people have at the end, which is kind of my
favorite part. So basically you'll show up. These classes run
from six to eight in the evening and we have
about nine of them scattered across southern New England. You
go to the closest one to your location. You show
(06:55):
up and basically myself or one of our meteorologists from
my office would be there and they are going to
lead you through a class talking about various topics from
what the National Weather Service is, who we are, kind
of what we do briefly. Then we'll move into talking
about the ingredients of a thunderstorm, what you need to
get a thunderstorm, how it happens, it's life cycle features
(07:17):
that you can identify like shelf clouds and wall clouds
and what they mean, as well as the various hazards
from storms that we're looking for, things like hailstones and
damaging winds, and we'll talk We'll move on to talk
about how to stay safe through various types of storms,
so tornado safety, say, safety from lightning, things like that,
(07:39):
and we talk about what kind of hazards are specific
to southern New England, what are the most common types
of surveyor whether we get here in where we live.
And then finally what to report and how to report
it to the National Weather Service office. And then the
end we open it up for questions from anybody about
anything that we did talk about or anything just.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Weather in general.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Is there a quiz at the end?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
There is no quiz. So you if you've taken the class,
you've passed fabulous.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I mean, you know, people think, oh, class, I don't know,
I'm gonna have to take a test. No, literally, just
show up and learn really cool stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So you said that there are classes all over New England.
Tell us about when and where people can go and
check this out.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Sure, So we have classes all the way through live
in person classes all the way through May sixth. That's
our last, our final one in person that's in Beverly,
mass But then if you we have I believe nine
in person across Connecticut, Mass, Jews Cent, Rhode Island. And
then if you aren't able to attend any of those,
we do have a virtual option, a live virtual option
(08:43):
on May twenty first, that I'll be leading. That one
will be at seven pm on the twenty first, And
so you can go to our website whether do gov
slash Boston and you can either navigate to our Skyward
page from there, or you can just add on to
that ere whether do gov Flash Boston slash Skyworm, and
that'll take you to the page where you'll see our
(09:03):
training schedule. You can see all the classes listed and
the link to register.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Okay, and it's free too. That's the best part. We
love a free education exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's free and open to anybody, no age, no age.
We used to say, oh, you need to be at
least over sixteen but to report, but we've kind of
eliminated that and we open.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
It to everybody.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Beautiful, and you know, if somebody's listening, this is a podcast,
and people from all over the country listen to this show.
If they want to get skyworn training but they're not local,
is it worth doing the virtual one for New England
or should they reach out to their own offices?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Sure? I think I think both are are valid.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
So the training that you'll get from our class is
going to really cover most everything that you would get
from other locations. Now, if you say live in Tornado Alley,
I would encourage you to sign up, go to the
wather I go on whatever state you live in. Where
you live, it'll take you to your local offices page
(10:04):
and they should have a Skyworn link on their page
and with their training options. I would encourage you to
take a local class if you can, because while a
lot of the content is going to be the same,
there would be some local knowledge that they're going to
have that I won't be able to address because we
have a lot of states and territories that have a
(10:24):
lot of different micro climates and things like that. So
I would encourage you, if you can, to take a
local class, but we definitely would welcome you.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
In our virtual class as well.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Phenomenal all right, and of course weather dot gov slash Boston.
As we get into severe weather season, not of the
snow kind. You know everything you need. You all are
working hard over there in your in and if people
want to sign up for information, if they need alerts,
weather doc, Gov slash Boston is the place correct.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
That is correct whether or not you take one of
our classes. Be weather aware, have multiple ways to get
your severe weather warnings as we go into the spring
in the early summer, that's when our peaks. If your
weather season is and just be aware of what's happening
so you can stay safe.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, for sure, WBZ is one of those ways. We
are working with you all over at the Weather Service,
and you do such a great job, so we thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
For that and we appreciate your partnership absolutely. All Right.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Bryce Williams from the National Weather Service over in Norton,
thank you so much for the time.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join us again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.