Skywarn / R.A.C.E.S.

The Huntington County Emergency Management Skywarn team is led by program manager Thomas Fuller and assisted by Skywarn officers Tony Ehler, Butch Williams and, Nick Stanley.
The Skywarn team is all volunteers who constantly are watching for forecasts of severe weather that might affect Huntington County. The main responsibility of a Skywarn spotter is to identify and describe severe local storms. The Skywarn officers communicate with the National Weather Service and provide guidance to the EMA director and other government officials before and during severe weather. When the time comes with severe weather approaching, Skywarn officers dispatch appropriate spotters to make real time reports to the National Weather Service. These reports are instrumental to the NWS office in making determinations on warnings and weather statements. After the storm, the Skywarn volunteers assist other public safety personnel and the weather service with assessment, cleanup and recovery.
The Skywarn team has taken the steps to have Huntington county certified as a Storm Ready community.

Storm Ready Logo


StormReady uses a grassroots approach to help communities respond to extreme weather — from tornadoes to hurricanes. StormReady helps communities respond to hazardous weather by providing emergency managers with clear-cut guidelines on how to improve their hazardous weather operations. Applying is easy. To be officially 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.
The National Weather Service office that covers Huntington County is Northern Indiana (Call sign IWX). Their website is www.weather.gov/iwx.

RACES Logo

The Huntington County Emergency Management RACES Team is lead by Program Manager Tony Ehler. RACES supports auxiliary communications through the RACES program using amateur radio frequencies and any other means necessary. The Team also supports all other amateur emergency communications programs in Huntington County.