When it is raining cats and dogs, the Pullman community Weather Spotters may be the first to respond.

Andrew Brown from the National Weather Service in Spokane trained Pullmanites on proper ways to identify hazardous weather and how to report them.

“Whitman County is a storm ready community and WSU is a storm ready university,” said Elizabeth King, WSU’s emergency management coordinator. “To maintain this status, part of the requirement is to host a training in our local community for the Weather Spotters.”

A storm spotter’s main job is to report severe weather conditions to the National Weather Service in Spokane.

“Spotters can help report to the local NWS meteorologist timely, accurate, and detailed warnings by confirming severe weather found in the NWS radar,” King said.

The weather radar allows for meteorologists to tell the temperature of clouds as well as the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.

“The radar, however, has limitations,” Andrew Brown, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service said. “It can’t process images up to a certain distance, which is where our spotters come in.”

The largest hail ever recorded in the Palouse region was three inches, and was reported by a local Weather Spotter.

“Large hail, strong high winds, severe thunderstorms, or flash flooding can be called in to NWS for reporting,” King said.

With the winter months approaching it is important for citizens and students to be cautious of dangerous weather.

“There was a university who had 75 trees falling down on campus,” Brown said. “That is a huge safety measure.”

For Pullman area, four inches of snow in 12 hours or six inches of snow in 24 hours is enough for a warning to be sent out if reported.

“If everyone would report to the weather service there would more information available for people to properly respond to safety measures,” said Robin Cocking, the deputy director of emergency management.

Providing resources to Universities as well as in the community is a large goal of the Storm Spotters program.

The NWS is using social media as well as other forms of communication to help properly supply communities with weather warnings.

“We want to let you know, we want to be more proactive and communicate that weather risk more efficiently,” Brown said.

“I love outreach and communication,” Brown said. “Helping educate is a passion of mine, and I sincerely enjoy helping people become more aware.”

There will be another Storm Spotter training in the spring to prepare for summer related extreme weather conditions.