ITHACA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Temperatures continue to climb across the region and so does the risk of severe weather. Knowing how to spot dangerous weather conditions is not only beneficial to you and your family, but also your community.

The National Weather Service will hold a training course for its SKYWARN Weather Spotter Program on May 8th at the Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response in Ithaca, located at 92 Brown Rd, Ithaca.

The course is an hour and a half in length and will train attendees the basics of storm spotting and reporting your findings to NWS and Emergency Management. Topics being covered will include tracking severe weather, safety precautions, and understanding the hazards of severe weather.

There's no pre-requisite to be eligible for the course, all you have to do to learn is simply show up ready for the instruction.

"It's a short hour and a half class where you get to learn all about severe weather and-- the types of severe weather that that are out there and what we're looking for in the National Weather Service in terms of data that helps us for not only the short term with our with our warning operations but also long term in terms of weather and climate records," said NWS Binghamton lead meteorologist Mitchell Gaines.

The class is free and open to all interested parties.