Saturday and Sunday, January 24th and 25th, Winter Storm Fern struck Centre County and really all of Pennsylvania. Centre County ARES activated to provide local weather reports to the National Weather Service State College Office (NWS CTP) and to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA). PEMA activated the Auxiliary Communications System with amateur radio operators staffing the PEMA station KB3NIA at the Commonwealth EOC near Harrisburg. Depending on where you were Fern dumped between seven and 15 inches of snow on the County. Amateur Radio Operators were active throughout the storm. Continue reading
Category Archives: Skywarn
Skywarn Recognition Day Centre County ARES Results ** UPDATED**
On Saturday, December 6th, from 1000 to 1100 Centre County ARES in cooperation with the National Weather Service Office in State College (NWS CTP) conduced a drill testing communications for weather events. Both the VHF/UHF stations at NWS CTP (WX3CTP) and the Centre County Emergency Operations Centre (CCEOC) were activated by Greg, K3HOT, and Carmine, K3CWP. Check ins with weather reports from a number of locations and stations were conducted. Continue reading
Skywarn Recognition Day 2025
Skywarn Recognition Day is sponsored by the National Weather Service on the First Saturday of December annually. For 2025, December 6, 2025, ue to fallout from the Federal Government shutdown, NWS has cancelled the 2025 event.
Regardless of the cancellation, Centre Counties ARES will conduct a short exercise on Saturday, December 6, 2025 from 1000 to 1100. Continue reading for details. Continue reading
Skywarn Operations Report from 4/29/2025
On Tuesday, April 29, 2025 a line of severe thunderstorms raged across Pennsylvania causing significant damage. In anticipation of the excess communications traffic that would be needed NWS CTP asked amateur radio operators to staff the amateur station in the State College Office. Carmine Prestia, K3CWP, and Dan Tancibok, KB3ESJ, operated from 1600 to 2000. Although very quiet at first around 1828 things changed. Continue reading
NOAA/NWS possibly up for layoffs
In the administration’s race to cut government NOAA/NWS could be on the chopping block. See:
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/27/layoffs-hit-noaa-national-weather-service
I understand that a federal judge may have blocked the actions. However, this is a matter of public safety that can affect every United States Citizen and visitors to our country.
Skywarn Recognition Day 2024 Report
On December 7, 2024 Centre County ARES/Skywarn operators in cooperation with the State College National Weather Service Office participated in Skywarn Recognition Day 2024. Greg Guise, K3HOT; Dan Tancibok, KB3ESJ, and Elden Wood, KF0JZM staffed the VHF/UHF stations in the NWS office. Carmine Prestia, K3CWP was to operate a portable HF station outside the NWS CTP office. Unforeseen circumstances forced Carmine to operate from his home station. Operations were conducted from 09:00 to 12:00 Local Time on Saturday. Continue reading
Western Pennsylvania Skywarn Exercise, October 19,2024
Between 10:00 and 12:00 on Saturday the nineteenth of October, Western Pennsylvania amateur radio operators cooperated with the National Weather Service offices in State College and Pittsburgh to test amateur communications capabilities throughout the ARRL WPA Section. It turned out to be a very successful drill confirming the ability of the State College NWS office (NWS CTP) to communicate over a wide area, including contact with the Pittsburgh office (NWS PBZ). Continue reading
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow (CoCoRaHS) Network
If you are interested in greater participation gathering weather data for the National Weather Service you might want to look at the CoCoRaHS program for reporting precipitation totals to NWS. As the name implies CoCoRaHS seeks to record accurate daily precipitation data for the NWS. Click on this sentence to find out more information.
Weather/Skywarn information links
Bob Fenner, K3RDF, an NWS Employee provided a number of links to weather information that is of interest to Skywarn Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators in General. You can find them by clicking on “Links” in the menu above.
Thank you Bob!
Results of Skywarn Net Jan. 24, 2024 on W3GA, 146.76
As announced a Skywarn was conducted from the National Weather Service State College Office (NWS CTP) on January 24th at 19:00. NCS used the NWS CTP call sign WX3CTP. Carmine, K3CWP and Greg, K3HOT staffed the station.
Nineteen stations checked in from seven counties as listed below. The showed that the coverage for W3GA will be useful for Skywarn activations should other local repeaters fail. Thank you to the stations who checked in. They are listed below. Continue reading