Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Weather Meeting Set For March 1

As February draws to a close, Arkansas gets closer to its normal period of severe weather.

Davis Benton, with the Nevada County Weather Center, said Bruce Burkman, severe warning coordinating meteorologist with the Shreveport, La., bureau of the National Weather Service, will present a program at the Nevada County Courthouse Monday, March 1, at 6 p.m.

The topic of discussion will be how to identify and report severe weather, especially tornadoes.

Though the program is geared for emergency services people (law enforcement, fire and rescue), Benton said, it is open to the public.

"Nevada County is fortunate to have one of the best equipped volunteer weather reporting arrangements in the state," Benton said.

The weather center is in the Nevada County Rescue Unit building in Prescott. It is manned by trained personnel in times of severe weather.

In addition, he said, those at the center are in direct radio contact with the Nevada County Sheriff's Office and all county fire departments.

The weather computer is linked with the NWS and recent updates now allow the computer system to gather information from all NWS offices across the nation.

The center, he said, can also stay in contact with the Shreveport, La. and Little Rock offices of the NWS when needed.

"With the latest technologies," Benton said, "we still depend on the volunteer weather spotters in times of severe weather."

This will be the first year Nevada County is covered by emergency warning sirens. These sirens have been placed at strategic points throughout the county to warn residents of approaching severe weather.

Benton said the siren system was made possible a grant obtained by Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown and former Office of Emergency Services coordinator Charles Backus.

"The people of Nevada County," Benton said, "should be proud of their city and county officials, along with the volunteers who work together and make the county better prepared in times of severe weather when it threatens the area."

Anyone interested in volunteering their time to the Nevada County Rescue Unit or any of the county's volunteer fire departments needs to contact either the local fire chief or NCRU member.