Oswego County - Oswego County continues to take a proactive approach to monitor, prepare for and respond to weather emergencies, Judy Levan, Meteorologist-in-Charge at the National Weather Service-Buffalo Forecast Office, told the County Legislature recently.

Oswego County was recertified by the National Weather Service as a StormReady Community in a program that recognizes local efforts to enhance response plans and weather information monitoring and dissemination.

Oswego County received the designation first in 2004 and has been recertified every three years since. The county Emergency Management Office partners with the E-911 Communications Center and Oswego County Emergency Communicators/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), an amateur radio group, as well as with the National Weather Service to ensure weather information is received and disseminated.

"The StormReady program can help communities save lives," Levan said. "Oswego County has demonstrated its ability to warn residents quickly when hazardous weather is in the vicinity."

To be certified as StormReady, a community must:

• Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center
• Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public
• Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally
• Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars
• Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.

Levan thanked Emergency Management Office Director Dale A. Currier and the Oswego County Legislature for their support and participation in the program. She also noted the efforts of the Oswego County RACES, who operate as Skywarn observers during severe weather events and provide valuable observations to the Buffalo forecast office that aid in decisions to issue warnings.

The Oswego County Emergency Management Office will host a Winter Skywarn spotter class at 200 N. Second St, Fulton, in the basement at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 15. For information call the Emergency Management Office weekdays at 315-591-9150.
 
OSWEGO COUNTY IS READY TO WEATHER THE STORMS - Renee Fox, left, Emergency Medical Services Coordinator for the Oswego County Emergency Management Office, accepts a StormReady certification certificate from Judy Levan, Meteorologist-in-Charge at the National Weather Service - Buffalo Forecast Office. Levan provided the certificate in recognition of Oswego County's recertification in the national community preparedness program that certifies municipalities and agencies that have multiple methods of receiving and disseminating life-safety weather hazard information.