There is a Podcast called
Living the RV Dream that I listen to, and this subject came up a few weeks ago when someone emailed the show saying there was no need for a weather radio when he has weather alerts on his smart phone, and that's all that was needed. The following was my email reply to John over this..
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Hi Kathy & John.. :)
Still out here listening to all the shows on my daily commute and heard a few things that caused me to check in..
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As for replacing a perfectly good NWS emergency radio with a smartphone app.. While this seems like a great idea, I have an entire page of Push Message weather and EAS IPAWS apps, and there are many many issues with their reliability, all the way from NWS data reliability (their delivery to the data server), to data delivery to the various app servers, to whether your phone has reliable enough data coverage. I am part of an FCC advisory committee that has specifically addressed these issues and have spent months vetting out the reasons these systems could or will fail, then recommend how to fix them.
On my iPhone I have Weather Channel, Accuweather, Intellicast, Weather Radio, ELERTS, Wx AlertUSA, Weather Alerts, City Alerts, Inciweb, and 2 others that are developer betas. Of all of these, when I sit the NWS radio on the window and compare them against the iPhone, none catch ALL of the NWS alerts ALL the time, and all it takes is one miss. Of all of these I think the most consistent app is Weather Radio. I was able to watch all of these in action a few weeks ago while in San Antonio and Austin while the storms were moving in off the Gulf, and Weather Radio was the one I would choose if I were limited to only one app and I had no access to a real weather radio.
---snip---If you have sparse voice coverage, don't expect your SMS coverage to be 100% either. They are both digital and use the same data channel. While SMS isn't streaming like voice and does have error correction, you're still on the edge. If you have NWS coverage, use it first.
BTW- There is an app for the iPhone called 'Boltmeter' that does a pretty good job of showing lightening strikes in a radius out to about 30 miles with a map overlay showing where. But as with the Wx apps., it needs reliable data delivery to work.
