Spotter Training Guides

To get started you need to attend a basic spotter course, review the National Weather Service Basic Spotters' Field Guide, and participate in making observations with advanced trained spotters to give you in the field practical experience and help you to understand how to make accurate and susynct reprots of weather events and provide consise but terse damage assessments.

Once you get some experience under your belt, you should attend an advanced spotter training class and review the National Weather Service Advanced Spotter's Field Guide.

FEMA Self-Study Courses

Wether you are just a first time Skywarn spotter, an experienced emergency manager, or anywhere in between, you need to take this course It does an incredable job of teaching how storm systems form, as well as provides preparedness and mitigation strategies that apply to everyones community. To take the class go to Anticipating Hazardous Weather & Community Risk.

I highly recommend every person regardless of age interested in preparedness take this great introductory course to give you the big picture of being prepared and turning you into a survivor instead of a victim. To take the class go to IS-22 Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness.

FEMA Emergency Management Institute offers a lot of very useful self-study courses. Although they are no substitute for hands on training. They are still very useful in conveying core fundimental knoweldge. After studying the material you can take an on-line test and receive a certificate via email from FEMA. You can also earn collage credit for these courses. You just have to pay for the credits at the prevaling rate.

The following NIMS courses are suggested for anyone that is planning to volunteer for any served agency and assist during any type of field exercise or disaster. The IS-100 courses are targetted at different occupations either choose the IS-100.a class or take the class that best fits your personal job responsibilities or background. The IS-200 class does come in a varient for Healthcare. Visit the following courses National Incident Management System Course Catalog. for the latest courses and links to any of the following courses.

• IS-100.a (ICS 100) Introduction to Incident Command System
• IS-100.HC Introduction to the Incident Command System for Healthcare/Hospitals
• IS-100.HE Introduction to the Incident Command System for Higher Education
• IS-100.LEa Introduction to the Incident Command System for Law Enforcement
• IS-100.PWa Introduction to the Incident Command System for Public Works Personnel
• IS-100.SCa Introduction to the Incident Command System for Schools
• IS-200.a (ICS 200) ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
• IS-200.HC Applying ICS to Healthcare Organizations
• IS-700.a National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction
• IS-800.b National Response Framework, An Introduction

Resources

• ICS Resource Center
• National Integration Center (NIC)
• Additional NIMS Courses
• ICS for Executives/Senior Officials(G402)

To see the full Emergency Management Institute Course Catalog you can visit the full Emergency Management Institute Independent Study Course Catalog.

Red Cross - Get Prepared