OUR MISSION: "The Gaston Regional SKYWARN Team's mission is to provide communication services for the collection of severe weather reports and dissemination of critical weather information in support of the National Weather Service and its mission to protect life and property by improving warning accuracy."
Thank You to the Gaston County ARES NC4GC for your Sponsorship
Sponsored by the (WG4RC) GASTON RADIO CLUB
The GRST is a Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador. Weather-Ready Nation is all about readying your community for extreme weather, waters and climate events. Click the logo above to learn more.
2023 Gaston Regional Skywarn Team Officers
James Ledbetter -K04DZI-Chief
Tony Jones -NA4TJ - Asst Chief
Chris Norman- Deputy Chief
David Bach-Training
Andy Pagoota-Capt
Matt Norman- Capt
Mark McCleery- Zello Capt
Kristian Richardson- LT
Steven Richardson - Lt
Mike Payne- Chaplain
2023 ARES OFFICERS
James Ledbetter - EC
Tony Jones- AEC
Pete Mcginnis-Treas
Ray Jarvis -Sec
Cy Rowe- AEC
Covering a region that includes the Charlotte and Gastonia metropolitan area, the Gaston Regional SKYWARN Team was formed in 2020 to help report severe weather to the National Weather Service (NWS) using amateur radio, ZELLO and social media. Members of the Gaston Regional SKYWARN Team, are volunteers, some amateur radio operators that are experienced, trained spotters, and Private Citizens, like yourself. You do not have to be a trained spotter to report severe weather to us but the training is very beneficial.
Regional Coverage Area includes the following counties in North Carolina and South Carolina:
Catawba County
Cleveland County
Gaston County
Lincoln County
Mecklenburg County
Rutherford County
Cherokee County, SC
Union County, NC
SKYWARN:
MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Sept 2022 Ken Williams
Oct 2022 Andy Pagoota
Nov 2022 Tony Jones
Dec 2022 Steven Richardson
Jan 2023 Ken Williams
Feb 2023 Kristian Richardson
Mar 2023 David Bach
April 2023 MIke Payne
May 2023 James Ledbetter
June 2023 TBA
Check us out on Zello..... Simply go to your app store on your phone, search for zello and download it to your phone... Then, Search for Gaston Regional Skywarn Team and add us and simply give us a weather update, in your area.... we would love to hear from you
Reporting Severe Weather
During severe weather nets we are looking for the following types of observed weather events:
Flooding where roads are impassible
Hail of any size
Tornado or funnel cloud
Wind Damage
Rain of two or more inches per hour, or 15 minutes of rain that equals or exceeds .5"
On air, if you report severe weather please remember to including the following information:
Your call sign, say it and spell it phonetically
Your name
Time of observation
Location where the event was observed. Include City, County and State, then a street and cross street
If you need to submit a storm report to NWS and are unable to make a report via amateur radio, please follow this link.
Links
We are currently Looking to make some additions to the Team. If you are a Weather Buff, and wanna be a part of a fast growing Team complete this form.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES:
We offer Training on Basic and Advanced SKYWARN.
We can get you certified as a Licensed HAM operator.
FEMA online incident Command Training.
https://www.meted.ucar.edu/education_training/course/23 BASIC SKYWARN ONLINE
https://training.fema.gov/nims/ NIMS 100,200,700 AND 800 ONLINE CLASSES
https://hamexam.org/ ONLINE STUDY FOR HAM CERTIFICATION
Thank you Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society (W4BFB) and Scott Greene (KC4IRA) and the Shelby Amateur Radio Club (W4NYR) for allowing us to use your repeaters for our weekly and severe weather nets!
The Gaston Regional Skywarn® Team is a division of Gaston Radio Club (WG4RC).