Weather Radio recomendations?

Google Maps is also helpful as it will display sections of the highway that are currently experiencing congestion or other problems that are delaying traffic. I use it to decide which of two or more routes is going to be the best one to take or whether to sit tight and wait out bad conditions.

The free Weather Channel app on the iPhone will push weather alerts to you. The accuracy might be general in nature but I have still been woken up in the middle of the night with alerts. I pretty much just monitor weather apps hourly forecasts and especially radar on arriving at a campground or just before going to bed to have an idea what to expect. If the forecasts are dicey we will activate a little hand held Midland weather radio we picked up at a Cabelas as a backup.

Weather apps aren't necessarily that accurate either... Yet. One of the obvious problems with the SAME system is that it could alarm a county 100 miles wide (except Texas where they're every 3 blocks). Not only is the system being looked at from the top, down to revamp the reporting location, but there is serious talk of requiring GPS/ EAS receivers in all ATSC receivers, as well as DirecTV, Dish, and the various cable boxes as well.. All would have the capability to detect their location and display EAS alerts brought into them via the Internet and CAP (Which is essentially EAS through the we) much more accurately than anything currently out there. Nothing concrete yet, but the people that dream this stuff up are talking about it. But that gets back to the root problem: a very complicated infrastructure that often breaks in foul weather.

We went to the weather radio app after a tornado alert we received while staying in Lajunta Colorado. (eastern Colorado) Having grown up in tornado alley and being a pilot, I am fairly good at spotting developing bad weather. We turned on our battery operated weather radio and about midnight it gave the alarm. The main problem was it was giving the storm area by counties and we had no idea what county we were camped in. My wife grabbed the road atlas and started searching for our county. She finally found it as I was getting the Class A ready to move if need by. Turned out to be the county next to us but we got lots of rain, wind and lightning.

So at that point I decided to get something that kept track of where we were and would only send alerts for that location. Weather Radio was recommended and it has worked for us very well. I just put my iphone on the night stand next to the bed in sleep mode and it will wake up on receiving a signal. Whether it gets the signal before, at the same time or 30 seconds later, is no big concern to me. I want to know if if is for my location. If the old weather radios work for a person, that is good, but I wanted something better and I have it IMHO.

If a person could tie one of the old weather radios to a GPS system, then it would work the same as does a smart phone with GPS capabilities. My real answer is to stay out of tornado alley if the weather is looking threatening but since we run out to western Colorado, from Florida most summers, sometimes going on north to Alaska, it is hard to miss all the bad midwest weather at times.

powderman426 wrote:

2oldman wrote:

catkins wrote:
Any real world advice will be most gratefully accepted. THANKS in advance.

In my real world I use a smartphone.

Here also. The problem with weather radios is that you constantly need to update locations while traveling. The cellphone knows your location and sends only appropriate information. A great app is called Tornado which will automatically sound an alarm when bad weather is near you. It is a free app for android and maybe iPhone but I'm not sure.

No need to update if it has travel mode.

Been back for less than a week from just over five weeks with our first weather radio. We have the Midland HH54VP2 Portable Emergency Weather Radio. Would recommend it.
Deciding factors:
1 Portable so if we were away from the RV we could still use it.
2 S.A.M.E Digital Technology: Allows you to receive alerts/warnings for your area not the entire state.
3 Home/Travel Weather Modes: Home mode – Weather channel selection is made by menu. Travel mode – The unit scans and locks on the local weather channel
Had it go off several time during our trip, with watches only thank goodness, but during thunderstorms it was reassuring to know that nothing sever was being detected.
You do need to know what county you are in we noticed on many of the campground maps it would tell us what county we were in and if not we would ask as we checked in.
Purchased from Amazon

stugpanzer wrote:
Interesting that you mentioned this. My provider, Verizon Wireless, started automatically giving severe weather alerts about a year or two ago and I noticed that sometimes the phone alerts before my Midland Weather radio does.

That is interesting since EAS Wx alerts are generated from the NWS office. That means their own servers probigate slower than that cell provider.

Btw- I was on an FCC Advisory committee for two years looking at EAS for broadcast, but there were others dealing with cellular distribution, and several other outlets. I met the guy that owns and runs the company that supports Weather Radio for smartphones. All those things I've been nitpicking are things we talked about as potential problems that might kill an otherwise bulletproof system. So it's not just me being negative about this stuff.

We have a scanner with weather alert that runs off 12V in the RV and have a pair of FM hand helds we use that also have weather alert if we are outside or kayaking/hiking away from the campsite.

SCVJeff wrote:

joe b. wrote:
For the last four or five years we have used an app on our iPhones called Weather Radio. Think I paid $9.99 for it originally. Don't know what it costs now. It tracks your location and will wake up my iPnone if there is a weather alert where I am located, when traveling.

We have a standard weather radio but you have to turn it on at bedtime and know what county you are in as that seems to be the way weather warnings are given. The app keeps track of our location. Best weather app I have found. Having grown up in southern Oklahoma, I have a very healthy respect for what tornados can do to RVs, buildings, etc.

And what happens when you have flakey service, or incoming storms knock out cell service before those alerts are released, or what if it was simply missed? There is going to be inherent latency from the NWS release before it makes it to an SMS alert. If you can hear the originator first, why wouldn't you?

Interesting that you mentioned this. My provider, Verizon Wireless, started automatically giving severe weather alerts about a year or two ago and I noticed that sometimes the phone alerts before my Midland Weather radio does.

joe b. wrote:
For the last four or five years we have used an app on our iPhones called Weather Radio. Think I paid $9.99 for it originally. Don't know what it costs now. It tracks your location and will wake up my iPnone if there is a weather alert where I am located, when traveling.

We have a standard weather radio but you have to turn it on at bedtime and know what county you are in as that seems to be the way weather warnings are given. The app keeps track of our location. Best weather app I have found. Having grown up in southern Oklahoma, I have a very healthy respect for what tornados can do to RVs, buildings, etc.

And what happens when you have flakey service, or incoming storms knock out cell service before those alerts are released, or what if it was simply missed? There is going to be inherent latency from the NWS release before it makes it to an SMS alert. If you can hear the originator first, why wouldn't you?