by Kevin Lilly
What job pays no money while on call 24/7, offers a touch of personal peril and provides the opportunity to potentially save lives?
The answer: A storm spotter.
Cass County uses many volunteer storm spotters throughout the year, but mostly during the peak tornado season, March through July.
Steve Beckman, a Cass County resident, has about five years experience as a weather spotter tracking storms with the potential to produce severe weather.
Seeing straw driven into a telephone pole in the aftermath of the 1974 tornado in Monticello fueled his motivation to become a storm spotter.
“It just amazed me with what the weather could do,” he said.
Steve got his start through his brother, EMA Director Alvin Beckman, who described a storm spotter as an advanced scout who strategically positions himself or herself before the storm arrives.
During the storm
Once in place, the spotters relay information on wind speed, rainfall, hail size and cloud formations to the EMA office.
“So we have an idea of what’s coming into the county,” Alvin said.
That information is used to determine the strength of the storm and to decide whether to activate the emergency sirens and broadcast warnings. It is also passed along to radar meteorologists at the National Weather Service station in North Webster and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. To get lead time on a storm, a network of EMA directors from Cass and neighboring counties exchange data as well.
Alvin usually mans the office answering the phone and studying radar images from three Web sites while storm spotters serve as the eyes and ears in the field.
Communication is key but can become limited during storms. Reception on cell phones and radios often disappears.
“Sometimes you’re, uh, as we call it, flying by the seat of your pants,” Steve said.
When possible, storm spotters ride two to a vehicle for safety reasons. Sometimes, though, storms pop up too quickly for that to happen.
Thunderstorms can rain down any time of the day or night, which presents unique challenges for gathering data.
At night, spotters must use lightening flashes to see cloud activity, but a lot can happen between strikes. Spotters can be too close and not know it.
“We do not want to be in its path,” Steve said. “We try to be on the outskirts of the storm, hopefully in front of it before it does damage.”
Importance of spotters
For Alvin, two occasions mark the value of storm spotters in monitoring local weather.
In 2006, a series of tornadoes touched down in North Central Indiana. When Alvin called the National Weather Service to report a tornado at the White-Cass county line, they said it was not possible. Their radar indicated no tornado activity in that area. Beckman informed them he was watching the tornado rip across a field.
“That’s why it is so important to have the spotters out there,” he said. “Their radar may be indicating something and there’s nothing going on or vice versa. They may not be seeing something and something really is going on. That’s the reason they have to rely on information that they are getting from the EMA directors.”
The second case was in 2007 when a storm passing through the area prompted a tornado warning. Alvin did not sound the sirens and took criticism.
“We had spotters out well in advance of the storm coming in, and it stayed north of Cass County,” he said.
To Alvin, there was no reason to set off the sirens because there was not a tornado in Cass County, something the National Weather Service later publicly acknowledged.
Who becomes a spotter
Those who become storm spotters are generally intrigued by weather, enjoy helping others and accept the risks.
“They want to be out observing what’s going on,” Alvin said. “They want to try to help out any way they can. They can go and help relay information back to me where we can take the necessary steps to try to provide protection for the citizens.”
Steve’s dedication runs deep. He has a full-time job so storm spotting is something he does after work, something he is willing to stay out into the wee hours to do.
“Whatever it takes,” Steve said.
There is the occasional adrenaline rush, especially when seeing a funnel cloud or tornado.
“A lot of times you go out, you don’t really see anything,” Alvin said. “And when you do, it does get that adrenaline going.”
In his experience as a spotter, Steve has seen several funnel clouds and one tornado that hit a house and horse barn on 1000E.
Seeing a tornado can be mesmerizing, which can lure one into a risky situation.
“It’s very exciting,” Steve said. “You really have to watch yourself because when you do see them, you’ll be amazed so much that sometimes you’ll find yourself sitting there too long where you should be out of there.”
The occupation does contain an element of danger.
“When you’re out doing the spotting, you’re actually putting yourself in front of some of these storms,” Alvin said.
Steve has feared for his safety only one time. It was nighttime near Young America with tornado warnings in effect. He couldn’t see because the rain was coming down in sheets.
“It was literally shaking the truck,” he said. “We did not know if it was going over or not. And that one kind of concerned me.”
Safety is emphasized, but with the nature of the job, it’s not always possible.
“You’re there and all of the sudden it’s on top of you, and you have to ride the storm out,” Alvin said. “We’ve had several of our spotters get into very strong winds, heavy lightning and hail.”
Kevin Lilly can be reached at (574) 732-5117, or via e-mail at kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com
Interested in storm spotting?
For more information on becoming a storm spotter, call Alvin Beckman, Cass County's emergency management director, at (574) 722-2484.
