Severe weather is here; why you should get a weather radio
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Severe weather season in Central Texas runs from March 1 through early June. While severe weather can happen year-round, the spring months typically bring our highest concentration of wind, hail, tornadoes and flash flooding.
A good forecast and early warnings are only helpful if those warnings reach you. KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin spoke with Caileigh Peterson, Radio Safety Specialist with Midland, a two-way and weather radio company, about the importance of adding a weather radio to your safety tool-belt.
KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin: For those that don’t know: what is a weather radio?
Caileigh Peterson, Radio Safety Specialist, Midland: A weather radio is a simple device, and it is really great for severe weather season. As soon as the National Weather Service or a county emergency manager issues a, you know, alert, like a tornado watch or warning or severe thunderstorm warning, you will get an alert through this radio and they’ll actually give you instructions about what to expect as that storm rolls in and give you some tips on how to seek safety and shelter.
Bannin: What’s the difference between a weather radio versus an emergency radio?
Peterson: Well, a NOAA Weather Radio like this is perfect for at home use or keeping it at your business or at school, because it is programmed to that specific county that you’re in. An emergency alert radio is something that’s portable… it still gets that information from NOAA Weather Radio, but it is, you know, programmed to the area that you’re pulling from. So as you move around, it’s giving you the latest information for that specific area that you’re in.
Bannin: Now for those people that think that they are kept informed enough with the weather apps on their phone, why is getting a weather radio still a valuable tool to have?
Peterson: We always encourage people to have multiple redundant ways of receiving alerts and NOAA Weather Radio and cell phones are just a few of those options. However, we do know in storms that cell phone towers can become destroyed, whether they’re hit by wind or maybe even a tornado themselves. Or they can be extremely overwhelmed from people in the network using that specific tower. So sometimes those alerts might not make it through to you. So it’s important to have another way of receiving those alerts.
Bannin: Now are these radios easy to set up?
Peterson: Yes a NOAA Weather Radio is super easy to use, all you need to do is put the batteries and program your county so that you’re only getting those alerts for that specific area, so you’re not over alerted. And then you can just leave it be and in the background it’ll just monitor, kind of like an indoor smoke alarm, and it’ll go off and it’s that indoor tornado siren for you bring you the latest whenever you need to know about it.
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