The National Weather Service expects a warmer and wetter than normal winter in southeast Michigan. But that doesn’t rule out chances for a few days of heavy snow, ice, and bitter cold.

The Detroit/Pontiac forecast office is looking for volunteer winter weather spotters to report extreme conditions.

What do spotters do?

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared Nov. 3-9 as Winter Hazards Awareness Week in Michigan. NWS Meteorologist Steve Considine says the agency will train people how to identify winter some of the most significant ones.

“That can be terrible road conditions, tree damage, or power lines from either high winds, heavy snow, or ice,” he said. “They report snowfall and rainfall amounts directly to the National Weather Service.”

Read more: Observers track rain data on Detroit’s flood-prone east side

Considine says spotters play a critical role in reporting and understanding the effects of severe weather.

“It gives us kind of a big picture as to what is going on during adverse weather conditions in communities,” he said. “It gives us a little bit of ground truth from what the radar and observational data are indicating.”

The training sessions are free, but spotters will need some basic equipment.

“For rainfall, they will have to have a rain gauge,” Considine said. “For snowfall, it’s just a ruler and a plain piece of wood set outside.”

Where to sign up

The weather service will hold in-person training sessions in Detroit on Nov. 13 and 16.

Considine says the agency wants to gather more weather information from city residents so meteorologists can understand how weather affects them.