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There are some people out there who count weather-watching as one of their hobbies.

They are the type of people who keep The Weather Channel on mute while doing housework and any long-distance phone conversation requires a two or three minute description of local snowfall, dew point and rainfall indexes.

If you consider yourself one of these few, you might have the chance to put this odd interest to use.

No one cares much about your door knob collection, but the National Weather Service is getting ready to train ordinary citizens how to observe and report hazardous weather through their SKYWARN program.

As sophisticated as this agency is, apparently there are some gaps in their system that require real eyes to figure out what’s going on in the skies.

The Collier County Emergency Management Department is offering basic and advanced training on March 7 and 8 to anyone interested in reporting potentially hazardous storm activity.

Should you be unable to make those dates, the Tampa Weather Office can also train people to storm-watch in Collier County.

If you’re interested, contact the Emergency Management office at 292-8999 or visit www.colliergov.net for more information.