MARQUETTE — For better or for worse, weather is often a topic of daily discussion. Those who want to learn more about how the rain and snow are tracked and analyzed are in luck.

The National Weather Service Marquette office will begin holding its annual SKYWARN Storm Spotter Training presentations around the U.P. next week. The program helps to educate residents on how they can help the service track severe weather.

“We’re just trying to get citizens across the U.P. involved in reporting significant weather to us at the National Weather Service throughout the summer season and even in the winter season as well,” said Matt Zika, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Marquette office, “and so we just go out and do a simple presentation talking about weather things folks can look for that may be signs of significant severe weather, and then when the weather does turn bad, let those folks know how they can contact us here at the National Weather Service and let us know what’s going on in their backyard.”

Weather enthusiasts attending the presentations will learn about how thunderstorms develop and get to see what signifies an oncoming storm.

“There’s kind of a wide variety of information that we offer, including also even radar information — how the radar works and how people can actually look and get [a] simple, quick look at where the storms are and where they’re going to be heading,” Zika added.

The first presentation will take place at the Peter White Public Library at six thirty next Wednesday.