Subj : Re: Ugh
To   : Sean Dennis
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Tue Feb 23 2021 22:17:00

Sean,

 SD> It's still really wet here with that clay soil absorbing so much rain.
 SD> We've still March and April to deal with here and it's usually the
 SD> worst weather.  I am starting to call our district SKYWARN training
 SD> nets on Saturday nights 9 EST to get people active again.  I have a
 SD> feeling it's going to be bad this year.

  It was 16 and snowing in Little Rock a week ago. Today, it was sunny
and 76...just a week later. I too, dread both tornado and hurricane
season.

  I got recertified as a Skywarn Spotter via a Zoom session last year.
They know who I am, when I call the spotter number...and I know what
"reportable criteria" is. But, we'd have a bunch of "lids" who would
NEVER checkin to the training net...yet, when "the real thing" came
along, these folks would come out of the woodwork, with things like:

1) I've got a funnel cloud that's not rotating (they're likely seeing
scud).

2) The tornado sirens are going off.

3) It just started raining here.

  None of that is "reportable criteria". 

  Or, they ask "is the weather net up??". If they would listen first,
they would hear a special tone if Arkansas Skywarn was activated.

  Several years ago, one ham kept talking, and kept saying his callsign
as if he was signing off. I so wanted to key up and say "Put a friggin'
sock in it!!".

  Or the net declares "Emergency Mode", and no one listens to the
directions of Net Control.

  Then, you have these people who want EXACT SPECIFICS of either
severe weather or winter weather, BEFORE it occurs. You can't
convince them that "we can't know that". On one net, I said "You
might as well be asking the time of your death...or who the next
Pope of the Catholic Church is, while the current one is still
alive"...then they reply "Now, you're getting nasty about it".

  There are so many ways to receive weather information nowadays...
NOAA Weather Radio, smartphone weather apps (I love the Radarscope
app), radio and TV stations, etc. To me, if you ignore the forecast
(checking it once a week, thinking it'll never change), you do so
at your own peril. Around here, forecasts change more often than
one changes their underwear. Never mind if you look out your 
window, and see a tornado heading for you, you might no longer
have "clean underwear". :P

  After 28 years of crap like this, I got burned out on weather
(which is what I got into ham radio for in the first place). Now,
my emphasis is on Trains And Railroads...especially railroad
crossing safety.

Daryl, WX4QZ

.... Chain Lightning: For when you can't stop with one bolt.
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