When most of Kansas was under a severe weather watch on Monday, May 6, storm spotters with a Facebook page called Skywarn Spotters Barton County got to work.

Curtis Moos in Great Bend took a photo of a funnel cloud south and east of Larned around the time that a tornado watch became a tornado warning for portions of Stafford and Pawnee counties. The storm system he photographed then moved through the Great Bend and Claflin area with major rotation at times, he said.

Moos, who has chased storms since 1999, said the Skywarn Spotter page was created to help alert residents about severe weather. Skywarn is a volunteer program of weather spotters for the National Weather Service.

“I am one of the volunteer and certified Skywarn spotters for the weather service along with Derrick Brown, Seth Orebaugh and Jonathan Lipe,” he said. “We follow the severe weather events or threats for Barton county. As storms move through the area we have active storm spotters in the field relaying info to the weather service or 911. We report anything from wall clouds, hail, wind speeds, funnel clouds to actual on-the-ground tornadoes and damage. That info is then used or compared to radar to issue warnings for the area we are in.”

The Skywarn Spotters Barton County Facebook page is meant to keep residents updated on the real-time weather warnings and events for Barton County, and to help them plan ahead. They hope to add live-streaming so followers can watch live video submitted by storm spotters in the field.

Weather radio giveaway/photo contest

Skywarn Spotters Barton County also has weather radio giveaway contests, Moos said. Currently, there is a photo contest going on. Entries can be submitted until noon on Sunday, May 12. The top three photo submitters will get a weather radio. “Our followers will be voting on the images once I get all photos and a new post will be made reflecting all photos, then all followers will have the opportunity to vote,” he said.