Skywarn assist the National Weather Service (NWS) in its mission to protect life by gathering pertinent weather information from actual visual observations and reporting them back to an NWS post. Amateur Radio operators receive training as storm spotters on how to recognize certain types of weather and cloud formations and how to report what they see back to the NWS. These organizations are more popular in parts of the United States that frequently experience severe weather.
Repeaters that supports Skywarn nets can be noted and searched for on Repeaterbook. Amateur radio operators and scanner listeners alike may tune to these repeaters to hear the raw field reports about local weather as they are being reported back to the NWS.