We’ve all been heartbroken by the devastation caused by this year’s tornadoes. Those of us who live in tornado alley are familiar with having tornadoes close by- possibly too familiar. But make no mistake; what we’ve seen this year is not normal, and the risk of deadly tornadoes is greater this year because of current weather patterns.
The best way that you can protect yourself and your family from severe weather is to buy a weather alert radio. I tell all of my friends this, but I think that many don’t really know what a weather alert radio is. A weather alert radio is a critical tool in staying informed of severe weather, and television, computers, and regular radios are not an adequate replacement.
When the National Weather Service (NWS) issues any weather watches or warnings, they send out a coded signal that includes the type of watch or warning, how long it is in effect, and which counties are affected.
Weather alert radios are silent until the NWS issues an alarm. Once an alarm is received, the radio sounds a loud alert (I can hear mine throughout the house) and displays information about the weather event. For example, if a tornado watch is issued, the weather alert radio will immediately sound an alarm, display an amber light, and display something like “Tornado Watch” on the display. Most will also tell you how long the event remains in effect in hours and minutes. Warnings will sound the same alert, but they’ll be accompanied by a red light.
The first weather alert radios were “dumb” radios. You couldn’t program them for certain counties or certain types of events. This resulted in frequent alarms and many people simply turned them off because of that. Modern weather alert radios are able to use the NWS SAME system. This is the system that encodes information such as county name(s), length of the alert, type of alert, etc. into the alert message. That may sound complicated, but what it means to you is that you can easily program the radio to only sound alerts for your county, and you can also program it to not sound warnings that you aren’t interested in. My radio will only go off for tornado and thunderstorm watches and warnings, and only for my home county.
Why You Shouldn’t Rely on TV or Other Sources
When you’re watching the local news station during severe weather, the weather person is focused on avoiding any silence. Therefore, he or she will spend a lot of time reporting on factoids such as how much rain has fallen in certain cities, talking to reporters or viewers via phone, etc. When the NWS issues a weather alert, it has to be received by someone off-camera, passed off to someone who can speak to the weather person, communicated to the weather person, and then the weather person has to find a convenient opening in the broadcast to inform you about it. In my experience, the TV weather people often inform you of alerts several minutes after the alert has been issued. Several minutes may seem inconsequential, but keep in mind that folks in Joplin, MO, yesterday said that they had about 5 minutes of warning when the devastating tornado struck. Those few minutes can very well be the difference between life and death!
One more important factor; weather alert radios contain a battery so that they’ll continue to operate when the power goes out. If you rely on TV and the power goes out, unless you have a power generator or a battery operated television, you lose your ability to find out what’s going on.
Perhaps most important of all is that severe weather doesn’t always happen when you’re awake. I’ve often been awakened in the middle of the night by my weather alert radio, and many of those warnings came when severe weather wasn’t expected. Severe weather can happen any time, and having a radio that will alert you to it day and night is vital.
Where To Get a Weather Alert Radio
In our area, the best place to pick up a weather alert radio is Radio Shack. You can pick one up for about 50 bucks. Make sure that you get one that can use the SAME system. It will be marked as such.
Now stop reading and go get one! I’m leaving now to pick up a couple for my neighbors. You should do the same.
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