Walworth County Weather Spotters is Walworth County's SKYWARN spotter group for the Milwaukee-Sullivan National Weather Service (NWS) Office. For more information about the Walworth County Weather Spotters, click on the link above.

SKYWARN is a self-contained network of certified weather spotters sponsored and trained by the National Weather Service (NWS).  Many spotters are Amateur Radio operators who submit observations via radio. Compiled observations are forwarded to meteorologists at local NWS offices and the data is incorporated into reports and forecasts.  SKYWARN volunteers collect on-the-spot weather observations in localized areas that assist NWS meteorologists in producing forecasts that are more accurate and warnings that are more timely. SKYWARN and ARES-RACES are natural partners in Walworth County, working together to make our communities safer.

In Walworth County, observations are collected by the SKYWARN Net Control Operator or his assistants and data is forwarded to the National Weather Service office in Sullivan, Wisconsin. 

When severe weather strikes it is recommended that SKYWARN personnel who are Amateur Radio operators monitor their local repeater. Walworth County SKYWARN nets are conducted on the W9ELK repeater in Elkhorn, WI, which is in the of the county. The following observations are criteria  worthy of reporting to the NWS via the SKYWARN network:

     tornadoes   funnel clouds   rotating wall clouds   winds in excess of 58 mph   severe flooding   1" hail or greater   severe damage