As part of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Minnesota, Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Bill Hughes, a SKYWARN spotter and a spotter instructor. Hughes says spotters cannot be replaced by technology.

Tornadoes are one of the deadliest kinds of severe weather to regularly hit Minnesota and there is a large group of people who voluntarily keep their eyes out for them. Throughout the state, there are trained spotters... people who are able to accurately identify certain kinds of clouds that could turn into tornadoes. Here in the metro area, many of them are part of SKYWARN, a network of amateur radio operators.