Do thunderstorms, severe weather and snowstorms interest you? Do you want to help the National Weather Service in their effort to save lives and property here in Michiana? 

If you answered "yes" to either (or both) of those questions, then this opportunity is for you. 

The National Weather Service in Syracuse, Indiana, has officially opened registration for the fall season of its SKYWARN® Spotter Training.

The program was established by the National Weather Service and, "is a volunteer program with between 350,000 and 400,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service."

By signing up for and attending one of the multiple classes offered across the region, you will be on your way to becoming an official SKYWARN® spotter. 

You'll be able to send in severe weather and winter weather reports to your local NWS office, which could prove to be extremely important and beneficial.

Michael Lewis, a meteorologist at the NWS office in Kosciusko County says the mission of the National Weather Service is, "to save lives and minimize loss...So part of this is we want reports. We also want people to understand the impacts of severe weather and what they can do to be safe."

He added that you don't have to necessarily become a storm spotter and send in reports. By simply attending on of the classes, he says you'll walk out more informed on "bad" weather so when the next tornado, hail storm, flood, or blizzard strikes, you'll know what to do before, during and after.

Anyone and everyone can sign up for one of the classes. It's entirely free, only lasts roughly two hours and will allow you to learn all about severe weather. And for the first time, the classes will teach those in attendance about winter weather reporting.

Lewis says that anything from different wintry precipitation types to correctly and accurately measuring snowfall will be touched on in each class. That information is also important to the NWS during the cold season.

There will be classes in both September and October across Northern Indiana and Northwest Ohio. Locally, classes will be held in Warsaw, South Bend, Angola, and Rochester.