NATCHEZ — Those with a strong fascination — or maybe just a healthy respect for — severe weather will have a chance to learn how to be storm spotters for the National Weather Service early next week.

The Jackson Office of the NWS will have its annual storm spotters training class at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office shooting range. The class is free and open to the public.

Adams County Emergency Management Director Stan Owens said the class will teach volunteers how to spot severe weather and identify different kinds of weather formations.

The information volunteer storm spotters gather is an important part of monitoring severe weather, Owens said.

“When you sign up, you give your address and your coordinates, and (the NWS) ends up putting you in a kind of database where, if there is a severe storm in the Kingston area, they know they have someone they can call in the Kingston area and get good information on weather as it moves into other areas,” he said.

“During an event, my phone will literally start crawling with text messages. The (volunteers) I work with know that is how I want it reported so I can look at it and then pass it on to the NWS.”

In the past four years, more than 100 volunteers — a cross-section of the community including firefighters, politicians, ham radio operators and regular weather aficionados — have received training, and Owens said there can never be too many people keeping track of the weather.

“My basement has no windows, and I depend a lot on people in the field calling in with reports,” he said.

The class will last approximately two hours, and will include new information from the last year, so those who have previously taken the class are welcome to attend this year, Owens said.