RECEIVING SEVERE WEATHER INFORMATION 

When discussing severe or potentially severe weather, there seems to be two areas of interest that get talked about the most: 1) How to get the best radar display, "so I can see whats coming"; and 2) How to get Watch and Warning data the fastest, "so I'll really know when to take action".

If you're at home, you have several choices: TV - which of course you have to be watching or listening to;  Internet - which has to be running so you can watch or listen to;  NOAA weather radio - which will stand-by quietly until a watch or warning is received then sound an alarm;  and Text Pager or Cell Phone - capable of receiving and alarming incoming messages, but you have to have it on your person or very close by and you must be within range of the page or cell tower.

If you're outside doing just about anything, you're not likely to be carrying around a portable TV to watch radar or VHF radio to hear NOAA weather radio.  That leaves pagers, cell phones and Sirens.

Many cities and counties have their own out door warning siren systems. Because these systems are expensive, they are most often restricted to out door areas that get the most public use like parks, stadiums, some golf courses, community centers, hospital, schools, etc. Lee County is fortunate to have a great Siren system that covers a tremendous area of the County. But sirens can't possibly cover everywhere.

Most paging services offer text messaging which can be sent over the internet for just a few dollars more than the cheapest dial up, numeric only, paging service.

Cell phones have become more and more popular as a 'single source' communication device and most providers now offer email reception, and,  in some cases, sending capabilities for an extra charge. Some actually offer it as a no cost 'free benefit' for signing up to their service.

So, it would seem that the best choice for receiving severe weather information is via a text or email capable pager or cell phone. Again, remember the most important limitation: You must always physically be in range of the paging or cell tower to receive your messages. The point here is to make sure you sign up with a company that provides the best area of coverage for you.

Some of the newer high tech, high speed, currently high priced wireless services and devices (cell phones, PDA's, etc,) actually provide the ability to download current radar.

Ok, so now you have a text capable pager or email capable cell phone or even one of the high tech devices mentioned above, how and where do you sign up to receive those watches and warnings?  Check out the following links. Use google to search for 'paging services', 'emergency weather', etc; and if you're unhappy with what you get or don't get, contact me at wx4tm@wx4tm.com and I'll be glad to assist you in finding something better.

www.emergencyemail.org/

www.stormnow.com/

www.accuweather.com/wx/weatherpager/index.html

www.proalert.us/information.html

TAKING WEATHER ONE STEP FURTHER

"My current service is pretty good but I don't think I'm getting my messages as quick as I should" you might say. "I want to get all my weather stuff as quickly as possible without worrying about the middle man". 

So what are the best methods and sources to get all this weather data?  Well, there's lots of them from which you can choose to meet your specific needs. Only you can decide. Lets take a look at a few.

RADAR

Lets face it, unless you're really a weather geek, its not likely you're gonna carry around a 12V TV in your car to be able to see radar when the weather starts getting bad. Nor is it likely that you can afford one of those supper wireless PDA's that can receive internet graphics such as radar.  But while at home, you do want to be able to see good radar data. If your local TV station presents a good current radar picture 'when' you think you need it, then that's fine. If not, you can search the internet to find something that YOU think is best for you. Most of these are free. www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/loop/DS.p19r0/si.kmxx.shtml  NWS sites like the above are pretty good. With pointers and tools on these pages, you can get a wealth of local and national weather information including RADAR, Watches and Warnings, Forecast etc.  Next to the freely available NWS radars, the best paid radar service on the net, that's reasonable, for me, is at www.weathertap.com which is currently running about $75 a year. I've had it for about 4 years and haven't found any other service to be as good and as reliable within the price range. Lots of good stuff on this site.

TEXT MESSAGES - Watches and Warnings

You can always carry around a small portable VHF radio that will receive NWS watches and warnings! You can program most of these for a specific county(s) of interest so they'll be quiet until a watch or warning comes in when it will sound an audible alarm.  They're fairly cheap from places like Radio Shack. Learn about NOAA's weather radio service at www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/aware/noaawxr.html. 

There's gobs and gobs of ways on the internet to get these messages in either raw or graphical form.  There must be hundreds of web sites devoted to bringing you the 'most accurate and most timely weather data' available. One of the best sources is your nearest NWS office: www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/  It has pages with all kinds of current weather data.

Anyone can acess iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/main.html the NWS' Interactive Weather Information Network (IWIN) web site. With it, you can choose several text or graphic presentations .

The next best thing is having some special software that will monitor the NWS data stream and, upon receipt of an alarmed product, notify you in some speical way like text/email page or email direct to your cell phone.  Access to the data stream via the internet is free. The most popular software packages to process the data stream are not very expensive. My favorite is "Weather Message" www.wxmesg.com at about $50.  Author Danny Lloyd provides outstanding support. Danny lives just up the road in Tallapoosa County Alabama. Of course you have to provide the computer and full time access to the internet to take advantage of all the features and capabilities. The only problems associated with this method are internet dependability and the sometimes slow posting of the NWS data stream to internet servers.

Ya wanna get it faster? The overall best setup is to have your own satellite receiving system.  A while back the NWS developed the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) iwin.nws.noaa.gov/emwin/index.htm , a low tech, primairly text based (with a few graphics), free to the user, satellite system. All the user has to do is buy a satellite receiving system such as that found at www.big-z.com/ , and some software, www.wxmesg.com and you're all set.  Again, the user has to pay for the computer but there is no recurring cost for access to the satellite data stream. The biggest advantage here is that YOU control what you get and when you get it. 

This EMWIN satellite system is what I use. Its the same as that used by hundreds of Emergency Management Agencies across the country; cost about $1,500; is easy to set up and has required no maintenance in the five years I've had it. Among other things , and most importantly, this system will process incoming data very fast and, upon receipt of an alarmed product, page or email you very quickly. Its about the absolute fastest way you can receive severe weather information while you're out and about.

Say you don't want to put up $1500 and you don't have full time internet service. There's other choice. The Lee County Emergency ManagementAgency (LEECOEMA) http://www.leecoema-al.org/ receives the EMWIN satellite data stream, mentioned above, and automatically retransmits just that portion of the data stream that affects most of the southeastern states via UHF radio. You can receive this data with a low cost Radio Shack scanner, a special demodulator for about $65, your home computer with software described above and internet acess for automatic paging and email.

So its all up to you to determine your requirements, look at all the methods and resources available, and to choose one, or a mix, that best fits your needs. I'll be glad to discuss your needs with you and help you make a decision that best fits your needs. Email me at  wx4tm@wx4tm.com