The National Weather Services Central Alabama office will be providing storm spotter training on Tuesday Feb. 8 at the Marengo County Courthouse Courtroom in Linden.

The training will cover topics such as thunderstorm structure, climatology of Alabama tornadoes, exposure to visual clues and information on tornado safety and reporting procedures.

After Marengo County was hit by an F-2 tornado

on Nov. 24, local American Red Cross Community Outreach Coordinator Brenda Weaver knew something needed to be done. Since there were no warning sirens in the area Weaver helped set up a collaborative effort to inform people of what to look for in times of bad weather.

Weaver said she hopes people will take advantage of the class.

“I hope we have a good response all over the county,” Weaver said. “I encourage people to come to the meeting and we hope for a record turnout.”

Weaver said they hope to see a response from the entire county, not just the people of the damaged area.

“We hope to have people come from everywhere, not just the area that was hit by the tornado,” Weaver said. “We are trying to reach out to people all over the county.”

Weaver said she looked forward to the meeting and hoped it would be very productive and informative.

“We hope to learn a lot from the meeting,” Weaver said. “We hope to learn a lot about what to watch for to let us know when the weather turns bad.”

Weaver said the course would not just teach people what to do in case of bad weather. It will give them the knowledge to see bad weather before it hits. She said this would help people identity the difference between a thunderstorm and a severe weather situation. Weaver felt this knowledge would help many put their minds at ease when weather conditions shift.

“I think it will help us qualm a lot of fears about the weather,” Weaver said. “Hopefully, when we are done we won’t go running fro cover every time we see dark clouds. We will know what is going on and what to do. I think that will take a lot of fear out of it.”

The class, which will be conducted by Jason B. Wright, National Weather Service Coordination Meteorologist, will begin at 6 p.m. and will last from two to two and a half hours. I you would like to attend please RSVP Brenda Weaver, community outreach coordinator of the American Red Cross Black Belt Chapter at (334) 295-0805.