Arkansas SKYWARN® Names New President: MOU Renewed with NWS Little Rock and CAREN

By Danny Straessle, KE5WLR - Arkansas District A Public Information Officer

Entering its fourth decade of providing community service and emergency communications, Arkansas Weather Net, Inc. (aka Arkansas SKYWARN®) has named Greg Staton, K5GSS, as the organization’s president. He is preceded by outgoing President Pat Dixon, N5ZSN, who served for the last three years.

Staton is on-call 24/7 with the National Weather Service Little Rock Forecast Office, which activates SKYWARN® at its discretion whenever weather may be severe enough to threaten its 45-county warning area. An updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among Arkansas SKYWARN®, the National Weather Service, and the Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net (CAREN Club) has been signed and will serve as the framework for volunteer Amateur Radio operators to coordinate their services, facilities and equipment with the National Weather Service in support of the state of Arkansas and local governments for early warning of emergency weather information and emergency communications.