Emergency Management

Weather spotters are members of the community who take a 2 hour class instructed by the National Weather Service (NWS) that focuses on identifying hazardous weather events. The NWS uses trained weather spotters' first-hand reports in their forecasts and other weather products. Weather spotters are activated either by phone or through regular statements put out over NOAA Weather / All-Hazards Radio. Emergency Management also uses weather spotters to help ascertain the seriousness of weather events.

Weather spotters were (and are) a vital part of Teton County obtaining and maintaining its StormReady™ status.
StormReady™ is a designation given by the National Weather Service to communities who meet stringent criteria in an effort to prepare for serious weather events.

If you have been trained as a weather spotter by the National Weather Service and would like to be a part of Teton County Emergency Management's weather spotter network, please email your name, phone number, and spotter location to us. Also, if you have a weather station that uploads data to the Citizen Weather Observer Network (CWOP), email us your CWOP number and station information so we may use your weather data in Emergency Management. Click here for more information on the Teton County Weather Network.

Emergency Management places weather spotter information into our database of citizens we can call to get a better overall picture of the weather during emergency situations. Calls will be infrequent, and we will only call after hours if it is a very serious emergency.

After becoming a weather spotter, you can sign up for the National Weather Service's eSpotter program. Once you receive your logon information from the National Weather Service, you can submit both routine and emergency weather information over the internet (be sure to choose "Riverton,WY (RIW)" as your local weather forecast office). In addition to those eSpotter reports being received within seconds by meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Riverton, Teton County Emergency Management can also view these reports.

Emergency Management will post a notice on the front page of our site under "Announcements" on the right-side pane if we would like weather spotter reports for non-emergency events.

If you would like to become a NWS trained weather spotter, email Emergency Management to find out when the next class is or to request a weather spotter class for your organization. You can also check our Agency Calendar to see when the next Weather Spotter course will be offered in the area.