CURRENT WATCHES & WARNINGS

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SKYWARN is a nationwide National Weather Service (NWS) program of volunteer weather spotters who report hazardous weather to local NWS offices.  SKYWARN volunteers are trained by NWS personnel to recognize features associated with rapidly developing, mature, and dissipating thunderstorms which cause hazardous weather.  SKYWARN spotters also provide reports of heavy snow, heavy rain and flooding.  These spotters provide ground truth observation information on the atmosphere that the NWS meteorologists use along with information from radar, satellites and various reporting stations to provide better forecasts and warnings in their coverage area.

When the NWS issues a warning or watch statement, the Du Page Amateur Radio Club (DARC) SKYWARN net is activated on the DARC repeater system.  The DARC primary Skywarn repeater at 145.43 MHz output frequency (-600 KHz offset) with a 107.2 Hz PL.  Additionally, the DARC 220 repeater [224.68 MHz (-1.6 MHz offset) with a 110.9 Hz PL] is “linked” to the 2M repeater.  The DARC 440 repeater [442.550 MHz (+5 MHz offset) with a 114.8 Hz PL] is also used as “backup” NWS liaison.  In the event that both the primary and secondary repeaters fail during a net, we will attempt to to operate on 145.43 MHz simplex (NO PL).  Listen on the DARC repeater for Emergency Alert System (EAS) warning announcements and NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) for watch, warning specifics.  While all weather radios will report ALL weather warnings broadcasted by the National Weather Service, some Weather Radios come with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) capability that (when programmed with the appropriate Federal Information and Processing Standards (FIPS Code) will set off an alarm for any warnings specific to your area (County).

• NOAA Weather Radio
• Programming Your NOAA Weather Radio
• IL Statewide SAME Codes
• National County-By-County SAME Codes
• Understanding FIPS and SAME Codes
• Skywarn For Special Needs
• All-Hazards Emergency Messages on NOAA Weather Radio
• Report NOAA Weather Radio Outages

The FIPS code for DuPage and surrounding Counties are:

   DuPage  

017043

   Cook  

017031

   Kane  

017089

   Kendall  

017093

   Will  

017197

NWS Reporting Reference

• On-line Spotter Reports

• e-Spotter

• NWS Direct Line: 800-681-2972

• NWS EchoLink: Node Number 293451

DARC SKYWARN program coordinators forward the county reports to the Chicago NWS office in Romeoville. 

DARC conducts a SKYWARN training net weekly on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. (March thru September) and monthly, on the first Thursday of the month (Jan, Feb, Oct, Nov, Dec).  If you’re interested in becoming a net control station or are just interested in becoming involved in the DuPage Amateur Radio Club SKYWARN program, you should contact nospaskywarn@ameritech.net.  All amateurs are encouraged to check into the Net.

• DARC SKYWARN Standard Operating Procedures
• Chicago Weather Forecast Office Skywarn Network

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