OK-First Certification Class
The OK-First certification class is a free 4-day class held at the National Weather Center in Norman. The class is also offered as a 6-week self-paced online class. 6 certification classes are offered each year including 2 in-person classes (1 in the spring and 1 in the fall) and 4 self-paced online classes. The certification class is open to public safety officials wanting to become OK-First certified (see eligibility requirements) and is not open to the public. Certification classes feature a mix of presentations by meteorologists, hands-on data exercises, tours, and other activities.
Class objectives are to:
- Introduce members to the Oklahoma Mesonet, OK-First, National Weather Service, and the broader weather enterprise
- Understand the ingredients needed for severe storms, heavy rainfall, fire weather, and winter weather as well as products to prepare for and monitor them
- Establish a strong working knowledge of basic radar principles, limitations, products, and applications
- Build proficiency for confident use the OK-First website and tools
The Oklahoma Mesonet is able to provide a limited number of attendees with travel support to the class (per diem and hotel). Agencies must be located 60 or more miles away from Norman to be eligible.
The OK-First certification class is worth 24 hours of Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) credit for participating officials.
OK-First Re-certification Class
The OK-First re-certification class is a free 1-day refresher class held at locations across Oklahoma. The class is also offered as a 3-week self-paced online class. Approximately 10 re-certification classes are held each year and occur during the spring and fall.
The purpose of the OK-First re-certification class is to provide certified OK-First members with continuing education opportunities. Unlike the OK-First certification class, re-certification class content changes from year to year and commonly include: training on new tools/websites, re-visiting fundamental topics, training on new weather data/radar products, applying concepts to recent weather events, and more.
All OK-First members are required to take an OK-First re-certification class no less than once every 2 years. Failure to comply with this training requirement results in a loss of certification and OK-First data access.
OK-First re-certification classes are worth 6 hours of Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) credit for participating officials.
