National Capital Area Skywarn Support Group

What is Skywarn?

Skywarn is a network of volunteer severe weather spotters who act as the "eyes and ears" of National Weather Service (NWS) offices throughout the country. Local NWS Offices train volunteer spotters on how to spot and report severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, and flooding. In some areas, spotters also report snowfall and ice accumulation. You can find the Skywarn Amateur Radio Subnets at this link.

NWS Baltimore / Washington Forecast Office in Sterling, Virginia, has been recruiting and training spotters into its expanded network since 1990. Over 5,000 volunteers cover 44 counties, plus Baltimore City and the District of Columbia.

Culpeper County Skywarn Subnet

Culpeper and its surrounding counties are part of the National Weather Service (NWS) Sterling (LWX) SKYWARN subnets. 

Amateur radio storm tracking and weather reporting in this region are managed by the National Capital Area SKYWARN Support Group. Instead of using an independent subnet explicitly for Culpeper County, regional operators participate in the Primary SKYWARN Net operated under the NWS station callsign WX4LWX.

Local check-ins and emergency traffic targeting Culpeper County feed into this system via local and adjacent linked frequencies: 

• Main NWS Net Frequency: 147.300 MHz (+0.6 MHz offset, PL tone 79.7 Hz) located at Bluemont/Mount Weather.

• Local Secondary Coverage: The nearby Fredericksburg/Stafford area repeater on 145.270 MHz (- offset, PL 79.7 Hz) provides primary fallback coverage reaching into Culpeper County to assist local ARES/RACES and SKYWARN activations. [1, 2, 3]

• Local Culpeper Coverage: The local W4CUL repeater on 147.120 MHz (positive offset, CTCSS 146.2 Hz) also coordinates emergency communications and SKYWARN support.

Waynesboro/Charlottesville Skywarn Subnet

The Waynesboro/Charlottesville Skywarn subnet serves Greene, Albemarle, Augusta, and Nelson counties, and the independent cities in those counties.

This net meets on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 9 PM on WW4GW 146.820-pl 136.5 and AA4DH 145.470-pl 151.4.

They also meet informally when spotters are “activated” for weather events.

Net participants are encouraged to monitor our local NWS All Hazards radio station KZZ28, 162.450, which broadcasts spotter activation notices and important weather information.

You can find SKYWARN's local efforts for the Waynesboro/Charlottesville SKYWARN subnet at https://www.wx4lwx.org.

When severe weather threatens the area, spotters can tune into these frequencies to listen to or check into active weather nets.