Alerts for destructive thunderstorms to appear on your phone.

[elleng]

'Before a violent thunderstorm complex unleashed winds up to nearly 140 mph in Iowa last August, many residents had no idea it was coming. It was the most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history, but severe thunderstorm warnings issued by the National Weather Service did not sound on smartphones like they do for tornadoes and severe flash floods.

Starting Monday, the Weather Service is implementing changes to their warning alerts to differentiate the threats posed by typical severe thunderstorms and those that are particularly dangerous, such as the Iowa complex last year. With winds rivaling those in a major hurricane, meteorologist classified it as a “derecho,” which is an extreme, fast-moving wind storm.

Iowa derecho in August was most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history

Now, your smartphone will blare ahead of such violent storms, but will not for more common events.

A thunderstorm is considered “severe,” according to the National Weather Service, if it contains one or more of the following: 1) hail at least one-inch in diameter, or roughly the size of a quarter; 2) damaging winds of at least 58 mph; 3) a tornado.

But there is a big difference between a severe thunderstorm with 58 mph vs. 90 mph winds, or between a storm with quarter-size vs. softball-size hail.

The new change will introduce two key categories, “considerable” and “destructive,” into thunderstorm warning text, creating higher tiers for the more intense storms.'>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/02/nws-wireless-emergency-alerts-thunderstorms/?

(((HOPING they work for NOT-smart phones too!)))

[applegrove]

1. I got an alert 2 years ago when i was eating dinner at my father's nursing home.

I looked out the window and saw the tornado on the other side of the Ottawa in Orleans. I was in the center north of the city. I was wrong. The people who got that tornado did not get a warning. I got a warning from the cell phone warning from the city to the north, Gatineau. Someone saw a funnel cloud there at their airport. Being across the river but still north, I was included in the cell phone warning that went out to Gatineau. I so regret watching the tornado to the south east and not calling it in. Orleans got no warning.

If you see a tornado call it in even if you got a tornado warning.