For all the sophisticated technology brought to bear on warnings of possible severe weather, a set of startled eyes spying a funnel cloud remains vital.

For all the sophisticated technology brought to bear on warnings of possible severe weather, a set of startled eyes spying a funnel cloud remains vital.

Trained weather spotters are worth their weight in radar, according to officials with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Wilmington and Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, based in the Northland area.

"Doppler radar can only give us a sense of what a particular storm may be doing or what it's capable of doing," Brandon Peloquin, National Weather Service warning coordination meteorologist, said last week. "To know what it's truly doing on the ground, that's the role of the spotter.

"Spotters really have an integral role in the forecast process."

"There's nothing that beats having a trained weather spotter who calls in ... and says, 'I saw this cloud formation at Morse Road," said Michael R. Pannell, director of Franklin County Emergency Management since July 2008.

To add to the hundreds of central Ohioans who already have been trained to keep a knowing eye on the sky, Franklin County Emergency Management and Ohio State University Emergency Management will cosponsor the annual Tornado and Severe Weather Spotter Seminar on March 5.

The training, which is free and open to the public, will take place at the Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Road. The deadline to register for the seminar is Feb. 19.

"We can always use more spotters," Peloquin said.

The people who undergo weather-spotter training do so for all the right reasons, Pannell said.

"They're interested in the weather and they're interested in community service, and that's a great combination," he said.

The seminar will be led by meteorologists from the NWS Forecasting Office in Wilmington. The training sessions last between 90 minutes and two hours, Peloquin said.

"The speakers will cover how thunderstorms form, how thunderstorms can intensify to become severe and also go into the role of spotters ... and what kind of things we want to hear from the spotters," he added. "So it's a lot of instruction and training, but I like to think that there's some fun and entertaining moments of spotter training."

"With the knowledge they get from this class and the expertise they receive, it give us much better predictions," Pannell said.

Those interested in attending the weather-spotter seminar may register at fcemhs.org, the website of Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security.