• Severe weather is serious business, and it eventually impacts us all. Ground-truth severe weather reports are time-sensitive, and assists the NWS with making weather warning decisions, hopefully saving lives.
• BMXSpotterChat (in Slack) is a real-time communication tool for both Skywarn Severe Weather Spotters and Amateur Radio, as a direct line to ALERT Operators, who are typically at the National Weather Service during Severe weather.
• It is also useful for amateur radio, when unable to reach a repeater, or if more than words need to be shared. You can share storm reports, but also provide photos, or even customize your experience!
• For access to Microsoft Teams, email feedback@alert-alabama.org

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Request an Account Invite    |    Join BMXSpotterChat (Existing Users)

Chat Etiquette  |   Spotter Chat Policy

Slack for Beginners (12 min Youtube Video)   |   More Slack Tutorials/Trainings

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Many users will be in this Slack workspace, 24/7, so it is important to be courteous to other users. Here are some ways to make the experience work for everyone.

Guidelines for All Channels:

1. Be kind, behave well. We’re all adults. Treat others how you would like to be treated. We all have different ideas/ways of thinking, and that makes us stronger together. If there is a concern, contact an ALERT moderator directly. No public confrontations.
2. Except for the #Spotter-Reports channel, general discussion is welcomed, provided it is of a weather, tech, or amateur radio interest.
3. Use Slack’s Do Not Disturb features, on channels that you don’t wish to hear from when you’re asleep. Some of us are night owls, and we may tend to work late. (See the Slack Tutorials at the top of this page.)
4. Asking for a forecasts is usually discouraged. That information is available in other places, such as weather.gov/bmx or on Radarscope.
5. Avoid private messaging or @ tagging the NWS. In general, communications should be in the open, in a channel. There are exceptions, such as when the NWS directly contacts you/requests that you contact them. There may also be times when NWS submits a question to the room. The safety of over 3.9 million Alabamians is on their shoulders, so please extend the highest courtesy to them, by giving the most accurate, clear information possible. Do not be afraid to express uncertainty, or what you are not seeing.
6. Use the Display Name Guidelines.
   • ALERT Members: ALERT-County-Callsign-Full Name
     • Example: ALERT-Jefferson-NZ2O-Casey Benefield
   • Amateur Radio: HAM-County-Callsign-Full Name
     • Example: HAM-Jefferson-NZ2O-Casey Benefield
   • Skywarn Spotter: SKYWARN-County-Full Name
     • Example: SKYWARN-Jefferson-Casey Benefield

#Spotter-Reports Channel:

1. Bogus reports will result in access being revoked. Fake news is a no-no.
2. Avoid idle chit-chat, reporting non-severe weather so as to generate discussion, compliments about a storm’s physique, or ask for forecasts/storm particulars.
3. Storm Reports is what this channel is for. Only storm reports or directly relevant discussion to clarify a report on an active storm is permitted in this channel. We follow quality guidelines set forth in Storm Spotter Training:
   • Reporting Severe Weather (explained in the Spotter Field Guide)
   • Severe Weather Reporting Quick Tips
   • Storm Spotter Class Schedule
4. Do not re-report things seen on TV/Broadcast Media. Re-reporting only makes noise and feedback loops, wasting valuable time for the EMA and NWS. NWS and ALERT are in the same chats with the media. We usually see those reports before they are broadcast over the air. This chat is for getting NEW reports from spotters, to help facilitate the warning process.
5. Do not copy someone else’s storm report from this channel to the media. Once again, NWS and ALERT will be in the same chats. Doing this will cause noise/feedback loops where the same report gets to EMA and NWS from multiple paths, wasting valuable time. ALERT/NWS must also filter potentially sensitive information, such as casualty reports.

Slack Tips!

Slack is new to a lot of people, so here are some tips which will help you to be successful!

• Watch for pinned posts/announcements: If it’s pinned, it’s important.
• Use Status Messages: Status can convey, quickly, if you have taken shelter, are home, or whatever you want to convey. It is custom in Slack.
• Edit your profile: There are useful fields in profiles, added by us. Things like callsign, license class, or other suggested profile info.
• Courteous Communication 1: Emoji is awesome, but don’t use it to replace words in a sentence. Emoji instead of words makes messages more difficult/slower to read. Think of it as an add-on to draw attention or express emotion, when appropriate.
• Courteous Communication 2: Use @ tags to address others in chat/get a specific person’s attention, but only if they are not currently engaged. Do not repeatedly tag.
• Courteous Communication 3: Try to keep discussion in threads, by replying to the thread.
• Focus on what you care about 1: If a message is important to follow up on later, set a reminder!
• Focus on what you care about 2: If there are certain things that you want to be notified about, you can set up custom notifications when a keyword is said by another user! For example, tornado, your callsign, your name, or the name of your county.

Need help? Click here to send us an email or contact us on Facebook: http://fb.me/K4NWS Severe weather in central Alabama is serious business, and it eventually impacts us all. BMXSpotterChat has been an important part of the Skywarn/ALERT program since 1998, especially where a spotter might not be close enough to a repeater. In 2019, the owner of our host (Weather.IM) made a decision to make all chats read-only, to combat spam/abuse. Unfortunately, that left us without spotter chat, but we appreciate them for providing the chat service for 20 years. Our solution up until November 2022, was to use Microsoft Teams, but that wasn’t without challenges, especially with adoption of this radically different software. With Teams, you could only be logged into one workspace at a time, so you would have to log out from your work accounts to use it. Not optimal! For the home user, most people didn’t have or forgot their Microsoft Account log-in, and/or often forgot to log in during severe weather. In 2022, we learned that the National Weather Service is working on a project to move their chats to Slack. To simplify how we operate during severe weather, it just made sense to use the same thing! With Slack, you can not only share storm reports, but also provide photos, or even customize your experience. We will still keep Microsoft Teams to hold our monthly meetings virtually for those unable to attend at the NWS, as well as for document storage, and a backup chat platform.

These are the terms and conditions for use of the chat room (BMXSpotterChat). By using this project, you agree that:

1. National Weather Service (NWS) Participation The NWS isn’t responsible for this service, and are not mandated to participate. They may participate at their sole discretion.
2. Warranties/Guarantees You assume all risk of using this service, and there is no warranty. It will not be staffed 24/7, as ALERT staff is 100% volunteer. ALERT is not always called into activation by NWS for all severe weather events. This service does not replace NOAA Weather Radio, or NWS operational mission critical systems. Automations are not guaranteed.
3. No Right to Privacy When you use this service, you agree that all content/communication/posts/files that you provide to this service are released to ALERT and the NWS, and may be used or disseminated, internally or externally. Do not post private / confidential information.
4. Information in this service is sensitive, confidential and privileged. From time to time, particularly sensitive information about casualties might be shared, as well as inaccurate/imprecise reports. Do not repeat confidential information that you might see in this chat room to media.
5. Account Security The security of your username and password is your responsibility. Do not share your password with anyone, including moderators/admins, and immediately report any security breach to ALERT.
6. Eligible Users ALERT reserves the right to grant and revoke access to this service at any time. The NWS does not manage access for this service.
   • Access will be granted to trained Skywarn Spotters, members of the weather enterprise (such as meteorologists/NWS, emergency management), ALERT members, and amateur radio. Others may be granted access at ALERT’s discretion, when in alignment with the shared mission that we have with the NWS.
   • Access will be revoked at ALERT’s discretion, for any person(s) who exhibit abusive behavior, which includes, but is not limited to malicious use, intentional disruption of severe weather reporting, false reports, sharing privileged information, illegal conduct, behavior intended to harass/troll/antagonize another member on or off the platform, or any otherwise unprofessional/inappropriate conduct which negatively impacts the shared mission that we have with the NWS.