Havre man awarded rare weather spotter award

A Havre man was awarded a rare award from the National Weather Service for his consistent and critical work during times of severe climate as a regional weather spotter, including the record-setting blizzard this month.

Josh Miller, who was trained as a weather spotter in 2011, received a Spotter Appreciation Award from two NWS employees Thursday afternoon in Montana State University's Northern Agriculture Research Center conference room.

"I've always been a weather nerd since I was a little kid," Miller said after receiving his award. "The movie 'Twister' was a huge influence on me when I was like 6. I love that movie. I got posters and everything."

The award is not easily or frequently handed out, Megan Syner of the NWS said.

"We've only done one other award in our area, so this isn't something we just give out all the time. We really wanted to recognize Josh for all his efforts and help he has given us," Syner said.

Miller has helped the NWS all year, Syner said, the kind of help that has led to weather warnings and other vital notifications for the areas affected. Miller provided critical and timely information during the Oct. 2-3 record-breaking snowstorm in north-central Montana.

"He played a very critical role in helping us to quickly update our forecast and also our warnings and make sure that we were getting the latest, most accurate information out there," Syner said. "Without his reports, we wouldn't have been able to do that."

Before the first snowflake hit north-central Montana, Miller said he was already watching the snowstorm develop.

"I'll pay attention days before an event. I'm always watching the forecasts. I'm ready well before it happens," Miller said,

Roger Martin, also of the NWS, said the information Miller provided would otherwise have probably come in later, "after the fact, which, at that point, you can't warn anybody once it's already happened."

The Great Falls NWS office, which covers a region that stretches west to Glacier County, east to the edge of Blaine and Fergus counties and south to Gallatin, has more than 100 volunteer weather spotters, but, Martin said, few work as hard and are as dependably as Miller.

"Josh is kind of unique 'cause sometimes we don't get a whole lot of feedback," Martin said. "He's one of the spotters that's regularly providing feedback, whereas other spotters we tend to have to call and be a little more proactive."

Miller's weather spotter tools are few and basic.

"Just a camera, a car and a cellphone - that's all I need," Miller said.

National Weather Service can always use more spotters, Syner said. Once the NWS spots a storm on their radar, they rely on spotters to let them know what it looks like on the ground.

Every spring - between May and June - the NWS holds spotter training classes in different cities across Montana. The training classes educate and prepare spotters on how to remain safe while spotting, including steps on how to stay safe when spotters see a tornado, what kind of clouds spotters should look for that could help identify a tornado, how to identify hail and hail sizes, how to stay safe in a hail storm and how to stay safe in a flooding situation.

"We encourage the community to attend free training courses and learn about severe weather and how you can prepare and stay safe from weather hazards," Syner said.