NOAA All Hazards radio

[Aaron Hulett]

If a tornado were to come by at 3am, would you know about it?

For those of you in the United States, a NOAA All Hazards radio can alarm to let you know of potential hazards, including weather (severe thunderstorm, tornado, high winds...) and non-weather (hazmat situation, need to shelter in place...).

I put a quick 1 minute video together about NOAA radios: https://youtu.be/zkcysFudITs

For those of you outside the United States, do you have a similar radio available? I'm not familiar with how folks outside the U.S. monitor for severe weather; perhaps it's not as much of an issue given between 65 to 80% of the world's tornadoes occur in the U.S.?

Regards,
Aaron

[Corrine]

Unlike you, the area I live in is a "Very Low Risk" area for tornados. According to records, the largest tornado in the area was an F1 in 1981 that caused 0 injuries and 0 deaths.  According to what I read, "Tornado risk is calculated from the destruction path that has occured within 30 miles of the location."

[winchester73]

My Midland WR-120 just died, any suggestions on a replacement?  (I swear, these Chinese electronics last only until the crappy solder lets go)

Another option is the WeatherCall service: http://weathercallservices.com/ ... it is subscription-based ($8/yr here), and you can have various alerts sent to whatever phone numbers you register.

[Aaron Hulett]

@Corrine These radios offer more than just weather alerts. Here's a video (with a lot of radios going off, be ready for loud noises) regarding a shelter in place event (believe it was a cop killer on the loose), I've set the link to jump to 45 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrT6Tc_FWGA&t=0m40s

You could also be told to shelter in place due to a HazMat situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf8xxPXHexo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gy2mMtWIew

@winchester73 sadly, quality has dropped as you've noticed. I've found the Midland WR-300 to work well, but I think it's end of line - perhaps the 400 carries on the "quality"?

Here's the smoke detector I'm using with NOAA built in - they are not cheap, require hard-wired power in the house, and all detectors would need to be replaced: https://halosmartlabs.com/

The Eton units are hit and miss, I've experienced.

[Frands]

If a tornado were to come by at 3am, would you know about it?

Yes, but not by something like NOAA Weather Radio. We would be warned from the national radio/TV stations and local ones as well. Also if something really dangerous is going on and we have to stay indoors, then we will hear some special sounds from sirens in the town/city where we are. Them sirens would also tell us to turn the radio on and listen to the national radiostation. We are not that afraid of tornados. We have had a few but it's only something like a lil fresh wind. No danger at all.

This is only a lil fresh breeze as we use to say:

[Corrine]

Wow, Frands!  That is some "fresh breeze".  The second picture, though, shows the awesome beauty of "Mother Nature" with the stark contrast between the blue and white. 

[Aaron Hulett]

I'd call that a washout!