Coosa youth becomes official storm spotter
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Kaden Tindall shows his certificate for completing the Advanced Storm Spotting Course and officially becoming a storm spotter. He is pictured with his sixth grade science teacher, Dennis Lawry. Photo submitted
By Christa Jennings
Senior Staff Writer
A Coosa County youth recently became a certified storm spotter, achieving one of his goals in his great interest of meteorology.
Kaden Tindall, 11 years old, attended a 3-hour Advanced Storm Spotter training class through the U.S. National Weather Service. Following the course, he then took a test which his mother described as “pretty tough” and passed.
Having completed the course and passed the test, Kaden is now a state-certified storm spotter. He is now listed in the database and can work with local Emergency Management agencies, or EMAs.
The storm spotter training is part of the National Weather Service’s SKYWARN, a volunteer program with trained severe weather spotters. NWS states that those volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.
While SKYWARN spotters provide essential information for all types of weather hazards, NWS states that the primary responsibility of a SKYWARN spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms. According to NWS, in the average year 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 5,000 floods and more than 1,000 tornadoes occur across the United States, threatening lives and property.
“Since the program started in the 1970s, the information provided by SKYWARN spotters; coupled with Doppler radar technology, improved satellite and other data; has enabled NWS to issue more timely and accurate warnings for tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash floods,” the NWS website states.
SKYWARN storm spotters are described as being “part of the ranks of citizens who form the naiton’s first line of defense against severe weather.”
Basic SKYWARN training is a prerequisite before completing the Advanced SKYWARN training, as Kaden did. The advanced training is described as covering “more advanced topics, such as severe weather climatology, severe thunderstorm development, how radar works, and other aspects of forecasting.”
Kaden is the son of Thomas and Jennifer Tindall of Rockford, who expressed how proud they are of him.
“He has developed a huge love for meteorology this year thanks to Mr. Lawry,” Mrs. Tindall said, speaking of Kaden’s sixth grade science teacher at Central Elementary School Coosa County.
“It all started with science assignments tracking hurricanes, and he now wants to be a meteorologist when he grows up,” Tindall added.
She further stated that Kaden said without Lawry he would never have been able to pass the test because much of the advanced test involved various types of clouds and what they mean, which Kaden said Lawry focused on at the beginning of the school year.
Mrs. Tindall said, “We are so proud of Kaden and so thankful for Mr. Lawry for pouring into our son!”
Now that he is officially a storm spotter, Coosa County will have one of its own young people to help monitor weather conditions and provide early information to the National Weather Service, providing ground information to help warn forecasters of any potentially severe weather while helping the NWS in its primary mission of saving lives and property.
Kaden will now be able to report to the NWS Birmingham forecast office, which covers Coosa County, regarding any hail; strong or damaging winds; rotating wall clouds, funnel clouds, or tornadoes; flooding; and severe thunderstorm criteria.
