About Georgia SKYWARN

Purpose & Mission

The Georgia SKYWARN website serves as the central hub for the Georgia SKYWARN linked repeater system, coordinating severe weather reporting across 96 counties in North and Central Georgia. We provide real-time weather alerts, repeater information, reporting guidelines, and direct coordination with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City (WX4PTC).

Key Features

• Real-Time Weather Alerts: Automatic updates every 5 minutes from the NWS API, displaying active warnings on the homepage and comprehensive alerts on the dedicated alerts page.
• Dual Navigation System: Site-wide navigation (colored buttons) for moving between pages and page-specific navigation (white buttons) for jumping to sections within a page.
• Repeater Directory: Complete listings of linked and non-linked SKYWARN repeaters with frequencies, coverage areas, and emergency power information.
• Mobile-First Design: Fully responsive layout that works seamlessly on phones, tablets, and desktop computers.
• Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA compliant with semantic HTML, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, and automatic light/dark mode support.
• NWS Resources: Direct links to weather tools, radar, forecasts, decision support products, and coordination contacts.

Technical Details

Built with clean HTML5, CSS3, and vanilla JavaScript—no external frameworks or dependencies. The site uses localStorage caching for efficient API calls, secure CSP headers, and follows mobile-first responsive design principles. Maintained by Jack Parks (KQ4JP).

NWS Atlanta issues severe weather warnings (i.e. Tornado Warnings, Flash Flood Warnings, etc.) for 96 counties in northern and central Georgia. We call this our "CWA" or County Warning Area.

Below is a basic diagram of the site's structure, showing the main pages and their relationships.

                                +-------------------+
                                |     Home Page     |
                                |   (index.html)    |
                                +-------------------+
                                          |
              +----------- Links to -------+----------- Links to -----------+
              |              |             |              |                 |
              v              v             v              v                 v
        +----------+  +----------+  +----------+  +----------+  +------------------+
        | Alerts   |  | Repeaters|  | WX4PTC   |  | About    |  | NWS Useful Links |
        | Page     |  | Page     |  | Page     |  | Page     |  | (nwsffclinks)    |
        +----------+  +----------+  +----------+  +----------+  +------------------+
                                          |
                                          v
                                   +-------------+
                                   |    Photo    |
                                   |   Archive   |
                                   +-------------+
		

All pages share the same navigation menu, header style, and footer. The site uses minimal JavaScript for mobile navigation and footer loading.