Weather Spotting vs Storm Chasing

I am a trained weather spotter. As a weather spotter, I do not try to chase down tornadoes. Instead, I report on severe weather that is occuring wherever I happen to be.

A storm chaser is one who safely gets in behind a storm in order to locate any tornadoes which may develop. This should never, ever, ever be done as a one person show and not by one who doesn't have the proper training.

When severe weather [a thunderstorm that produces 3/4 inch hail or larger in diameter and/or winds equal or exceed 58 miles an hour] is approaching the KC area, the National Weather Service will request that the SKYWARN net be activated. Upon receipt of this request, the person acting as the net control operator will activate once the liason operator arrives at the National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill, MO. Yes, every weather office has a amateur radio station inside. In the Kansas City area, the SKYWARN frequency is 146.820.

Nearly every county (and some individual cities) in the KC metro area have spotter groups. One person from each of these groups acts as a liason between their group and SKYWARN net control to provide storm reports directly to the National Weather Service. This procedure works amazingly well.

Here are the frequencies the local spotter groups use. By the way, I am only listing frequencies on which I have personally heard spotter (or weather related) traffic so my list will differ slightly, or greatly, from lists you may see elsewhere.

KC SKYWARN 146.820
KC SKYWARN Backup Frequency 146.700
Johnson County KS 145.470
Wyandotte County KS 147.210
Jackson County MO 146.970
Independence MO 145.310
Clay & Platte Counties MO 146.790
M.E.R.S. (Metropolitan Emergency Radio System) 154.130
National Weather Radio KID-77 in Pleaant Hill, MO 162.550

For those who are interested in becoming a weather spotter, there are several things you should do:
1) Attend the training the National Weather Service provides every year in the later winter/early spring
2) Become a Amateur Radio Operator. You will be most effective when operating with a group, plus it's safer this way.
3) Download (right-click and select "Save As") the Basic Spotter's Field Guide (557 kb) and the Advanced Spotter's Field Guide (3.2 MB). Keep a copy at home and one in the vehicle to use as a reference tool. (Please do not link directly to these files! Instead, direct the links to this page. Thank you!)
4) Your personal safety is of high importance. When storm spotting, do no place yourself in a dangerous situation. If conditions are deteriorating at your location, inform the control operator of the net you're checked into that you need to relocate, then do so.