When There Is a Threat of Dangerous Weather in Your Area, Do You:

[MineralMan]

14 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Monitor Local TV or Radio Media for Alerts and Warnings?
	2 (14%)
	Monitor a NWS Weather Radio?
	1 (7%)
	Go to A Weather Website for Your Area?
	1 (7%)
	Monitor the NWS Twitter Feed?
	0 (0%)
	More Than One of The Above
	6 (43%)
	Go to DU and Look For Weather Warnings in GD?
	0 (0%)
	Ignore the Whole Thing and Wait for Sirens?
	0 (0%)
	Head for The Basement, Just to Be Sure?
	1 (7%)
	Head for High Ground or Flee the Area?
	1 (7%)
	Other
	2 (14%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[hedgehog]

1. I'll say this much - I had no idea how bad things were last night until

I took a look at DU. I haven't the patience any more to sit though 3 minutes of commercials to get a snippet of news, so I end up getting most of my news here.

DU is a chat room. Some people like to chat about weather.

on edit - I think the comments from local DUers regarding any kind of weather including ongoing droughts gives a better picture of what's happening than any media outlet. The comments here tend to include a lot of background that you can't get elsewhere.

[Jesus Malverde]

33. "DU is a chat room."

More correctly described as a "discussion forum".

"Chat rooms" update in real time. Ive often thought DU could use such a feature, they typically don't work well for the administrators cause there is only one page view.

[LordGlenconner]

44. I can assure you that's not the case in Tornado Alley

Last edited Tue Apr 29, 2014, 11:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Looking at DU only (or frankly, at all) during a tornado is a good way to get yourself killed.

[hedgehog]

71. I'm not in Tornado Alley - what I meant was that I would haehad no idea anything

unusual was happening there if I hadn't seen the threads pop up here on DU.

[Iggo]

2. Other.

More Than One Of The Above.

...and...

Go To DU.

Granted, DU's last on the list. But it's on there.

[dionysus]

3. we're not in a tornado area hence no sirens, but if nasty stuff was imminent my ass is going down in

the cellar with that cat.

[hlthe2b]

4. I get alerts on my cell phone. If a "watch", I continue to monitor via the app or any of the above

options you mentioned (radio, tv, NWS weather band radio). If a warning-- requiring me to head to the basement, I monitor NWS weather band. I should mention that my furry babe loves when i go down to the basement with her--since there isn't anything distracting me from playing with her--LOL.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

5. DU is a real-time information source during times of emergency, despite your (and their) problem

Last edited Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:30 PM - Edit history (1)

with and dislike of nadin.

[hedgehog]

7. +1

If you don't want to read it, don't click on it!

[hlthe2b]

9. It is all cumulative. If one were not listening to tv, radio, nor getting alerts via cell phone....

a posting on DU might be the "ticket". I can recall times when a change in storm status for my area was noted quite early on DU, causing me to go to these other more traditional sources of information for details.

[MineralMan]

10. I have nothing against Nadin. I wish she would pay more attention

to spelling in her post titles, though. I corrected her spelling in that thread, because it was important that the name of the town be spelled correctly. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered. I don't read local weather reports on DU. If I see one, and want more information, I go to one of the weather sites.

Still, I don't think people rely on DU for warnings in their own area. There are too many more reliable and accessible sources of local extreme weather conditions.

I don't really care what people post on DU. If, however, they post something serious, like a weather warning, I do care about whether the place name is spelled correctly so people searching for that place can find the thread.

So, I posted a correction in that thread. Every time the place name was misspelled I posted the correct spelling to help people know what the place was. What Nadin or any other DUer posts is their business, and I don't really care. The GD hosts make decisions about the appropriateness of topics in GD. Not me.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

18. I agree with you somewhat on spelling. I knew what she meant. Tupelo Honey. Elvis' birthplace...

But to infer that DU doesn't provide a level of comfort to DUers in disasters/emergencies is just wrong. It is my contention that every DUer will have DU open in a tab during such times, as long as the electricity is on and they have their mobile devices handy.

[Ms. Toad]

24. You can post a spelling correction, if that is your real concern

Without starting a poll which clearly calls out not spelling, but posting weather threads in GD on DU.

You placed of your "all of the above" question after all of the information gathering activities, which deliberately set off weather threads in GD on DU as not a useful source of information.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

26. Yep. I noticed that too... nt

[City Lights]

27. That is why I "passed" on voting in his poll.

Threads like make me miss "Unrec."

[MineralMan]

35. I arranged the poll that way, because I don't consider

DU a good source for extreme weather alerts. It's not in the same category as the ones above that question.

My poll is designed to see how DUers actually monitor severe weather in their area. I don't think that has ever been polled here. I'm finding the results of the voting interesting.

I'm sure people will continue to post in GD about weather conditions in their area. That's been going on forever, and I have posted about weather issues in my own area, as well. Not to warn people, but to discuss them.

Thank you for your comment.

[uppityperson]

46. DU is good for weather information in areas other than where the DUer is, NWS for alerts

I read the current weather alerts for my area and for other places on NWS's Storm Prediction Center http://www.spc.noaa.gov/

However, I read personal accounts of what is happening here on DU.

I think I am agreeing with what you write and isn't the snow getting old?

[MineralMan]

48. Yes. I just came back from walking the dogs

in the snow. At the end of April! But, we had snow in May last year. Spring is coming. Really.

There are often discussions of weather, especially severe weather on DU. The on-the-spot reports from people in the area are valuable and instructive. I often read such threads to see what's happening or what has happened. There's nothing like a report from someone who is right there to get a feel for conditions.

I don't read threads, generally, though, where someone who is not in the area is posting about weather or posting warnings about weather in some place they are not. I entered a thread yesterday to correct a spelling error of a city name, though.

[Ms. Toad]

51. If your intent was really to see how DUers monitor severe weather in their area,

Then do it without your inserting own personal bias - otherwise it is a push poll, and push polls are designed by people with agendas.

[MineralMan]

52. As you see, I have posted a poll already.

It's collecting data already. You're welcome to vote in it, if you choose.

[Ms. Toad]

55. My point is it was designed as a push poll, not as a sincere attempt to gather information.

A push poll designed specifically to mock a particular poster.

If it was a sincere attempt to gather information, all of the questions about how DUers learn about sincere weather would have been above the "more than one of the above" question.

[MineralMan]

57. Actually, it is not a push poll in any way.

The top listed items, above the item indicating that people use multiple methods, are all directly related to weather information and rely on local NWS information to post their warnings.

DU is not a weather resource by definition, so I did not list it in that group. It has a separate entry. Anyone can vote for that entry. There's no push involved. All of the choices are there. Right now, the DU option has zero votes. But anyone can click that item to vote for it as their source for emergency weather information. Nobody has, so far, though.

You may not care for my poll. But it's the poll I posted. If you want, you can post something else. Or, if you think my poll shouldn't be on DU, you can alert on it and let a jury decide. It's DU. DUers post things on DU.

[Ms. Toad]

58. I do think your poll shouldn't be on DU

And I asked you to self-delete - which I use as a first option in trying to make DU suck less.

Your poll is about poking at nadin, not about gathering information. It was clearly a push poll, otherwise all of the active information seeking information options would have been put together - rather than putting one in the below the line "do nothing" category. You can rationalize it, explain it oh-so-politely to try to portray those of us who find it offensive as the unreasonable ones. But it is a push poll - and it makes DU suck. And you, of all people, should not be engaging in the same kind of behavior which has been directed quite liberally at you by others.

[MineralMan]

59. I saw your request, and decided not to self-delete.

All options are in the poll. People can vote as they choose and they have.

It's not about any DUer. It's about which resources people use when dangerous weather threatens them. People are voting in this poll. I'm not going to self-delete it.

You're free to post as you please about the poll. And you have. That's how DU works. As for other things and how others have treated me, that's really irrelevant, in my opinion.

[tkmorris]

62. I'll be the last person to defend Nadin's attention seeking

However when you post a poll you SHOULD be asking what other people think, not imposing (or even revealing) your own views on the topic. Anytime a pollster is influenced by their own opinions when wording a poll they have violated the very principle of the thing.

I will agree with you though on one thing. It is a very different matter to seek comfort through reaching out to others on DU during times of severe inclement weather than it is to post faux public service announcements about them. Personally I try to overlook that sort of thing but it can be difficult when a poster acts as a disseminator of important safety information while getting so VERY many details completely wrong. That is just plain irresponsible and should be corrected every time.

[MineralMan]

63. I included all the options, but grouped one set according

to my perception. DU polls are informal and often reflect the thinking of the person who created the poll. They are, of course, useless in determining anything but the way people choose to vote.

The DU option is one of the options in the poll. So far, nobody has selected that option as their vote.

[tkmorris]

64. Umm, yes of course MM

You will notice however that the runaway first choice is that people use more than one source for such information. Your poll wording quite clearly does not permit them to include DU as one of those sources, unless it is the ONLY source. That makes it a bad poll. You are correct in that many if not most polls here suffer from a similar bias, though I did expect better from someone who for all his faults is usually so very careful in his wording.

Having said that, anyone who uses DU as a primary source of emergency weather related information is... shall we say... not wise.

[City Lights]

11. +1.

[gollygee]

6. I watch the local news, however,

if I see stuff here or elsewhere about bad weather in, say, Iowa, I know to keep my eyes open later on.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

13. EVERY regular DUer knows they can get real-time info and has DU open on one device or another as

long as they have electricity and a smart phone.

DU is better than Twitter in this regard. I had Twitter open last night and there were hundreds of tweets with the same exact same after-the-fact photo and very little real-time info could be sussed from the chaos.

[randome]

8. Fly a kite, of course.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game. -Existenz[/center][/font][hr]

[oldhippie]

12. I get alerts on my cellphone, my NWS radio, ...

... and I monitor my local ham radio frequencies. If it looks like something is heading my way I'll check the radar picture on the web or on local TV.

I don't think I have ever gone to DU for local dangerous weather info.

[Brickbat]

14. I look to primary sources in those situations.

I do not consider DU a primary source regarding dangerous weather in my area.

[Ms. Toad]

15. How about self-deleting

This poll is more about who posted the weather threads than anything else. There were a number of people in the path of danger (or with family members in the path of danger) who appreciated them.

You ought to know what it is like to have a target on your back, so how about you don't take aim at someone else's.

[riderinthestorm]

20. + 1 nt

[City Lights]

23. +1. nt

[ChisolmTrailDem]

32. It is indeed all about who posted the info, and it always is whether it's a fire in California or

a hurricane in Louisianna.

And disingenuous blah-blahing that it isn't flies with me like a lead balloon.

[Arkansas Granny]

16. I watch local news/weather and keep Weather Underground up on the computer.

I clear out my closet (safest place in my house) and make sure laptop and phone batteries are fully charged. If I knew a storm was imminent and had time to get there, I would head for the nearest public shelter. Having lived in tornado alley all my life, I pay attention to what's going on with the storms, but I don't freak out.

[MineralMan]

17. I pretty much do the same thing,

but also turn on my weather radio. I have a basement, so that's my safe place.

[Romulox]

19. Other: Go online, wait for instructions from MineralMan!

[SMC22307]

69. LOL... that gets my vote. (n/t)

[PDJane]

21. I watch local news, keep the computer ready, and prepare to evacuate to higher ground.

I, you see, am less than a klick from Lake Ontario, and my area can flood. We don't get much in the way of your kind of wild weather, but we do get enough rain to make it tough.

Toronto is built on reclaimed land, more or less, and if the rain continues for any length of time, we get flooded subways, the river valley floods, and the DVP can be good for ducks. *shrug* It's what is.

[NuclearDem]

22. NWS website, Weather Channel, local news, and sometimes DU.

GD's also good for broadcasting info about tornado safety and getting info about about relief organizations that need help.

[Autumn]

25. Other. I go to GD and look for Nadins threads just because it pisses off some people.

[hobbit709]

38. Evidently it did again.

[Autumn]

41. Yeah, that it did.

Passive aggressive Meta trolling.

[Cali_Democrat]

28. There's rarely dangerous weather in my area

Haven't really thought about it.

I guess I would go to weather.com

[The Straight Story]

29. Hey look, a new tool called the internet. How u use it?

Well, I turn it off and watch TV cause they are always so far ahead of anyone else.

Not.

It is attitudes by people around here (a few of them) that make du suck. I can live follow the storm from a slew of angles whereas on tv I get one channel at a time.

TV is slow. I can watch three local weather stations online, twitter feeds from storm spotters (whom I follow), and oh...looky here, them thar tv folks sure are sending me information earlier than they are on air if not the same time.

Notice I didn't mention DU? Probably because anyone posting shit here gets judged and whined at and polls like this pop up instead of things like focusing on the news/information.

Granted, DU and GD seemed pretty closed to some information flow by design, but you have people here who have known each other for years, care about other du'ers, and know some like me who don't own a radio, no cell phone, I don't have my tv on since it is redundant and waste of electricity.

I check a lot of news - only takes me like one second click another tab (and if some folks don't know how to quickly change 'channels' in their browser I am sure some people here could explain to them how it works).

[Lady Freedom Returns]

30. # 5 and 6!

This is really a bad OP! Calling people out that are trying to keep calm in the mist of hell! NOT COOL!

[Xyzse]

31. Depends what kind of dangerous weather.

If it is the possibility of a Flood or Tornado, or any other sort of weather that could cause some sort of carnage, I am heading out of that state.

Anything less, would just have me buckle down at home.

[myrna minx]

34. Passive aggressive posts like this make DU suck.

It fosters mistrust here. It's challenging to navigate the potential DU minefields when innocent posters enter a passive aggressive call out thread, without knowing the motivations behind it. There are good natured people who are thoughtfully answering your poll question, without knowing this is mocking Nadin.

[Lars39]

36. Well said!

[City Lights]

43. Exactly. nt

[Autumn]

47. If I want to read freeper or caver like OPS trashing a DUer

for their spelling or posting I would rather go to their sites than read it there than read it here on DU.

[Ms. Toad]

54. Yup.

And the disingenuous explanations denying it has anything to do with nadin make DU suck more.

[QC]

67. Preach it, Sister! n/t

[Vashta Nerada]

68. [phone]

[SMC22307]

70. That's why it has only 3 recs in the nearly 5 hours it's been up.

DUers rejecting the passive-aggressive suckage.

[sarisataka]

37. Often I will go out

in the weather. My wife is a storm chaser which pretty much means i am a storm chaser.

[snooper2]

39. Where is the option to get on the roof and see WTF is going on?

Plano TX has huge fucking speakers 100 feet in the air that spin, sirens go off, and then they tell you what to do..

Loud as shit, there is one down the road from my work and inside the building you can hear on the first Wednesday of every month at noon on the dot-


TEST TEST TEST....bla blah blahh... TEST TEST TEST

[MineralMan]

42. They test our sirens once a month, too.

There's one a block from my home. As soon as it starts up, the critters head for the basement, where it's much quieter. They hate the noise.

Every once in a while, a siren test coincides with an actual thunderstorm in the area. Those can be confusing, so I check with the weather service if that happens.

I don't want to end my life by ignoring a tornado warning. That's for sure.

Regarding your title, though, if you do go up on the roof, carry a long metal pole and point it up. If you feel tingling, there may be a chance of lightning.

[snooper2]

50. I usually just climb on top the chimney and pee off the side to see what would happen

[B2G]

40. Maybe we need a weather group. nt

[SidDithers]

45. If I wanted accurate, real-time weather information...

Last edited Tue Apr 29, 2014, 12:04 PM - Edit history (1)

I'd probably go to a reputable source - like WeatherUnderground, or NWS.

And not rely on someone mirroring - often incorrectly - the information put out by these reputable sources.

DU's intrepid weather reporter has had issues with unreliable weather reporting sources in the past.

Sid

[hedgehog]

72. By definition, isn't every post in Late Breaking News mirroring

information put out by other sources?

[Tikki]

49. Where we live the most dangerous weather might be 'white out fog', not often, won't last long..

driving in it or as a pedestrian could be problematic. There is occurrences of local flooding, again, could
occur in a spot I might drive through, but probably not and there have been 30 mph hour winds, but not too often.

Getting caught camping or hiking rural and a wild fire approaching would be dangerous. And, of course, the
California earthquakes...far few and in-between, for sure, but we are always prepared…always.

The Tikkis

[Demo_Chris]

53. I do what I can...

Mostly I watch the radar and try to read it for myself (since the NWS is either on the ball or completely asleep at the switch depending upon the day). The folks who don't live in tornado ally have no fucking clue how quickly this stuff can develop or how valuable a warning on DU might be. Last week...

LAST WEEK....

I was in northern Oklahoma just outside OKC. Since we work outdoors (carnival and amusement industry) I keep a bloody close eye on the weather. We are getting ready to tear down and jump to the next town, and I see storm towers to the southwest looking like the are about to punch through the top and go critical. So I check the radar on my phone. It's totally clear. No watches, no warnings, nothing on radar. Fifteen minutes later the sirens go off. I happened to be looking at the sky but could as easily been surfing DU, like I am right now. If someone offers a warning the proper answer is "Thank you."

[Rowdyboy]

56. 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8...in other words, I do EVERYTHING I can think of...

DU certainly helped me through the worst of the storms. The only source I had available in our "safe room" was my I-phone and DU.

[LanternWaste]

60. I pretend to be clever by correcting typos.

"When There Is a Threat of Dangerous Weather in Your Area..." I pretend to be clever by correcting typos.

[MineralMan]

61. OK. Correcting typos is a good thing

when they could lead to confusion. I certainly welcome correction of my own typos if they cause confusion, and correct errors whenever they are pointed out to me.

[pipi_k]

65. For my own area...

it's a combination of sources.


But to get the latest info on weather affecting friends and family in other areas of the country, I think DU is a good option.

Not that I can do anything about warning those people in time, because they must surely have their own ways of getting up to the minute info...but it's good to know where disaster has struck so I can breathe easier, or text/call my loved ones to make sure they're OK.

[rrneck]

66. I watch the weather.

Where I am the most likely natural disasters are fire and earthquake. One will have no warning and the other will cause sheriffs deputies to come and drag my ass off whether I want to go or not.