Now that we live in a rural area outside the hearing range (if there is one) of a tornado warning siren, I was wondering if there is a product that can be used to warn you of tornado conditions or warnings. I've seen these "weather stations" for sale. Do they have some kind of alarm?

Do any of you use these? Can weather radios automatically come on if there is a warning?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 27, 2001

Answers

If your within a national weather service weather transmitter (most of the populated US is) you can get alert radio's. These can be turned on by the weather service when there is severe weather. There is a basic unit that turns on to any severe weather alert sent then there is a "SAME" technology that lets you set the county and specific alerts you want to turn on to. Check your local radio shack or electronics store for a demo.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), November 27, 2001.

Having lived in rural areas most of my life i have not had the luxary of a weather siren. In fact most of the rural town back in NYS and VA didn't ahve them and neither do they here in AR. We just had a bad tornado pass by Friday night, the only way we knew wa sfrom the tv, radio and from my weather bug which is a downloadable program that gives the dairy weather and "cheeps" when bad weather is pending. Good luck and hope you find something.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), November 27, 2001.

I have a weather radio,, RADIO SHACK brand. When I lived near a large city,,it worked great,,may have savedd my life once. BUt here,, no sirens,, no close Nationak Weather Center,, is where those radios get their signal,, so they dont work. I still take it when I go to work, especially when Im using my camper. They Do have an alrm on them when a bulliten is coming in

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 27, 2001.

Check out http://tgsv5.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrbro.htm for a list of weather stations transmitters. Most of the us is covered. You might need an ouside antenna to hear it but it is covered. Connecting your TV antenna to your weather radio can inprove its range.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), November 27, 2001.

Here in western Oklahoma, tornados are pretty common. I use a small hand held scanner that I purchased at Wal-Mart. I listen to the storm spotters in the area, when they see something, they report it to the radio and tv stations. By then, I am already in the shelter. They are not that expensive, under $90. It's worth it to me to know that someone is out there watching the clouds for me!

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), November 27, 2001.

Thanks all! You are just the best information--better than bunch of reference librarians!

Bernice: Ha! is dairy weather different than other weather? It reminds me of a public radio station in Wisconsin that used to have a tshirt with it's call letters on it and a picture of a cow gazing backwards over it's rump with the words: America's Dairy Air on it. Sure wish I had one of those tshirts! Priceless (as they say in the Visa commercial!)

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 27, 2001.

I just got a really nice weather channel CB radio- I would recommend it highly. The unit is a Cobra, has 3 weather channels, 40 cb channels and a pushbutton chanel changer to chanel 9 (emergency cb channel). I bought it at flying J truckstop about 6 months ago or 64 bucks- not bad for a new cb, by any means. The weather stations are nice to have when hauling hay from NY to NC- I monitor to see if I need to tarp the hay.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), November 27, 2001.

You can usually getthe little weather radios from Radio Shack for around $30. That's what they recomend for everybody here.

Also, I listen to a police scanner day and night because of my job as a newspaper reporter, so I always hear the warnings because they put them over the air for all the fire and rescue squads and for all the police to hear.

They have rated the tornado that hit our county Saturday as an F-4 so you can bet lots of people will be buying those radios before the storms they're predicting for this Wed. night!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), November 27, 2001.

Ann,

OOPS!!! I goofed, thought I had typed daily, not dairy! Guess ya'll know now where my mind wa sat 4:30 this morning! I got a laugh out of that t-shirt, too funny!

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), November 27, 2001.

If you turn on your radio to AM, then to a specific frequency range (I forget which, but I'm sure that somebody here knows - and it may even be in the archives somewhere - down in the 500's I think), a nearby tornado changes the pitch and tone of the static hum on that frequency. Something about the frequency of the spinning air, but the idea is that you turn the radio on early enough in the storm to get used to the normal sound, then you should be able to easily hear any approaching twister as it warps and changes the pitch (I think the sound goes up the closer it gets, but that could just be faulty memory cells trying to get their two cents in!)

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), November 28, 2001.