Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/34058
EXIT ONLY TODD DILLS ormer long-hauler and current traffic control supervisor and driver for construction firm Stripe Rite, based near Seattle, Sean Kiaer in April 2006 was a front-line wit- ness to the formation of an EF3 tornado in Tennessee. He called 911 from the cab to report the storm, which was headed directly for the town of Newbern, Tenn., but real- ized his own and the 911 operator’s limitations in getting information about the tornado out to the people who needed it most, namely Newbern residents and the National Weather Service. After learn- ing the storm killed 16 peo- ple in the town, he began chart- ing a course that led to the begin- ning, later in 2006, of the Trucker Weather Watch group. Close to 20 members strong, the group is com- posed of driv- Eyes on the Skies F The severe weather spotters of Trucker Weather Watch want you that the NWS has,” he says, is that, though the network is huge, “when do most people go to sleep? After 7 to 9 at night, there’s a huge gap, no spotters to be found. They’re all asleep. And during the day, the majority of us are working — in the factories, warehouses, law- yer’s offices — so most spotters’ eyes aren’t really attuned to the weather.” Montana-based NWS Warn- ing Coordination Meteorologist Tanja Fran- sen describes Kiaer’s efforts to recruit truck drivers to the ranks of weather spot- ters as mesh- ing with NWS needs. “Most of the weather spotters are stationary,” she confirms. In tornado alley, espe- cially in Texas, Oklahoma and Mis- Find more about the Trucker Weather Watch group at http://truckerweatherwatch.com or find their page on Facebook. ers who’ve gone through official National Weather Service SkyWarn (or Severe Weather Reporting Net- work) training as severe weather spotters. Kiaer had identified a real need in his initial assessment of the Sky- Warn network, one that truck- ers could fill: “The biggest issue 86 TRUCKERS NEWS JULY 2011 souri, she says, some mobile spotters are deployed dur- ing severe weather events, but having large numbers of trained spotter truckers “always on the road” around the nation would be invaluable to the SkyWarn program. “The trucking industry is there,” Kaier says. “We’re out there in the weather 24/7. What better indus- try to put in to the Severe Weather Reporting Network than trucking?” Truckers News Senior Editor Todd Dills is the author of a novel, Sons of the Rapture, and blogs daily at www. overdriveonline.com/ channel19. Write him at tdills@rrpub.com or http://twitter.com/ channel19todd. Initially, getting drivers trained proved to be difficult, as classes were only offered at particular times at National Weather Service satellite offices around the country. “That is why, after many months of discussion,” online training is available, Kaier says. He describes his effort through the years — “visiting National Weather Ser- vice offices around the country — I even spoke to the director of NOAA myself at one point,” he says — to get the new training out and available. “From NOAA on down to the National Weather Service, the upper echelons are very excited about this,” Kiaer says. They’ve unoffi- cially endorsed Trucker Weather Watch as a SkyWarn partner organi- zation, and he expects official rec- ognition. “All of our members go through the training,” which Fran- sen describes as much more rigor- ous than what, for instance, sta- tionary spotters trained in Montana might go through. “Our training is only two hours in Montana,” she says. All Trucker Weather Watch members, however, go through 18 classes, at about an hour each, Kaier notes, to account for the dramatic variety of potential weather condi- tions a long-haul driver may experi- ence. Members have access to a sin- gle call-in number to report severe weather. All you need to be a spot- ter is a cell phone, a computer and Internet access to complete the training. Now that online training’s avail- able, the group is actively seeking new members. To request appli- cation to take the courses, con- tact Kaier directly at truckerweather- watch@gmail.com.