Yesterday evening I did something I’d had in the back of my mind for years. I attended a storm spotter class.

It was put on by the area National Weather Service office, and held on the campus of MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe. This was the first of their 2019 training classes, with several more scheduled over the next few weeks at various locations around the Kansas City office’s forecast area of eastern Kansas and west-central Missouri.

Some of the information I knew, but some of it was good to have. I want to do a bit more research in order to feel like I can more reliably identify the various thunderstorm features and characteristics, but as of now I’m a “trained spotter”.