With all these severe storms going on....

[horseyrider]

How many of you have NOAA radios?

We live a couple miles outside our little town.  In town, they blow sirens there for tornado warnings.  But we live way too far out to hear them.  So a few years back, DH and I went down to Farm and Fleet and bought a NOAA radio.  Ours will send out watches or warnings for areas we select, and even do Amber Alerts if we wish.  It has a loud screeching signal, and when you press the button, it will give you an automated voice telling you what the alert is, where it's coming from, and when it will arrive at towns or landmarks in it's path. 

This can be a life saver for rural people.

They're relatively inexpensive; I think ours was like $30, and has a battery in case your power goes out.  I know they have them on Amazon too.  It's some of the cheapest and best insurance you can buy.

You got one yet?

[shellymay]

NO we don't own one, but we to have the sirens even in our rural area.......

[nbc3mom]

horseyrider, We have a NOAA radio for the same reason. They sound the sirens in town but we can't hear them 6 miles away. I hate being awakened at night with the loud shriek but at the same time, I am glad that it wakes me up.

[greatgreenfarm]

I bought one for my mom because, even though we live in town and I know the sirens work as I can hear them just fine, she can't hear them when they go off. She can definitely hear the NOAA radio in her kitchen though so that gives me peace of mind that she knows when to take her dogs and head to the basement.

Thanks for the PSA horseyrider, it's a good reminder for those who live outside the range of the warning sirens!

[susannah]

We have one. We're about 5 miles outside of town and I've never heard any sirens so it's a good thing to have a weather radio. I really appreciated having one several weeks ago, when we had a big storm that took out most of the power in several cities/towns up here. Our power didn't go out (and we have a whole house generator which would have run everything if it did). What DID go out was the satellite tv and the internet. Without the weather radio, we wouldn't have been able to tell what warnings we were under, for how long, where the storms were tracking, etc. Plus of course, we hear no sirens.

I love that radio!

[woolybear]

Funny story about sirens.. DD was working in Columbus, OH. a few years ago. Doing bird surveys for Ohio University. The sirens went off for tornado watch/warning. DD never gave it a thought until she met up with the other people at the parking lot. The other people asked DD if she was scared cause of the warnings going off. Nope, cause thats just how our local vol. fire companies put out fire calls for the vol. to get to the stations, grab their gear and trucks and run. She just figured it was a fire call.

[Deleted]

We're getting hammered right now. Basement has some flooding. Have one guy on the road and one on the road in the next few hours. The lightning and rain are bad. Not calling for tornadoes, but the way these storms today are shifting on the radar.....well, I'm watching it.

We have radios but I don't think with have the noaa kind.

I follow paducah nws and our local radio for updates.

We're not far out of town, but when the storms kick we usually can't here the sirens over them anyway.

We have a good view of surrounding skies, which I watch a lot. It's very telling. But at night and/or in heavy rains I can't tell much.

We have family west of us, and they'll sometimes call or text me heads up for weather. Or, I'll call and check what's happening on their side of the river.

Stay safe everyone. Here we got our July heat in June, now we're getting our June weather and storms in July. Go figure.

[Awnry Abe]

We had a NOAA radio. The thing drove me nuts. It would blurt out in the middle of the night about watches 3 counties away. Our weather apps on our phones give pretty pin-point warnings, which is nice.

[shellymay]

We received ANOTHER 2" of rain last night, town next to ours lost power for several hours but not here at home, this makes a total of 6" since Sunday of this week and several of the tomato plants are now laying over, THUD to much rain can be just as bad as not enough. Looks like it will be clear for balance of day but they are calling for more tomorrow, I can see on radar it is headed this way from Missouri and I hope it pukes out before it reaches here as it would be a waste of rain here because we are soaked and it just runs off! Pastures are happy happy happy! 

[Deleted]

We get alerts on our Phones. If it gets bad my wife has to go to work, watch radar, answer Phones and set up evacuations and or rescues. If she can't drive Law Enforcement or Fire Department gets her there.

Rockpile 

[Deleted]

We have a NOAA radio but can usually hear the sirens on test days, but when there are storms, it's difficult to hear the sirens. We have ours set so it only goes off for our county. The one we had previously would awaken us all the time for storms a few counties away, so this is much nicer. Cell signal is extremely weak at my home, so while I've received alerts when away from home, I've never received one at home.

Dawn

[Deleted]

Our cellphones here do the loud screech type siren warning for tornadoes. Same for amber alerts. Over in the county we're looking at raw land, the sirens still sound off on the cellphones. If they ever stop though, now we know to go get NOAA radios

[ohiodreamer]

Have radio and live only 8 blocks from the sirens. Sirens don't go off for anything other then tornadoes......which are rather rare here. Radio goes off for storms (all kinds) and floods.....so it's better then the siren in my book. Ours has battery back up......which reminds me, I should change that battery.

[ohiodreamer]

@rachelmcmurtrie , our cell phones go off for some things, too.....but not everything - in fact not much. Never for floods or just bad storms...I'd recommend a NOAA radio, too. We just don't "take the radio to bed" with us anymore as our phones charge in our bedroom. I don't care if a flood, hail, wind, etc is coming when I'm sleeping so the phone is enough (although the 2am Amber Alerts are a bit much at times.....but then I wouldn't feel so if it were my child missing. Do wish they would hold off on the "all clear" tones in the middle of the night, though). If a flood got us here, well I'd hitch a ride with Noah....our part of town's on top of the hill so a flood here would be historic. NOAA goes off about 6 or 7 time for every time our phones sent tones (well, my phone....DH's doesn't seem to go off anymore since last years tornado)

[Deleted]

ohiodreamer, good to know the difference in the cell phone warnings versus NOAA ones, thanks!

[Deleted]

I believe many of the weather alert radios can be set to indicate what warnings you want to receive. For example, only tornado or flood warnings, only in a particular county or two. I would recommend adding counties to your south and west, since that is often how tornadoes track, from the southwest. If it bothers you to get lots of warnings, look for the programmable kind.

Some of the cell phone alert systems are set up so that you can add several different locations, so you can monitor the situation for your property, perhaps that of your work and also that of elderly relatives, etc. It's worth checking to see if your county has that type.