Weather is a big part of our lives in the sense that everyone experiences some aspect of it every day. In times past the weather could represent many things, such the anger of the gods, the magic of the witch doctor and a myriad of other supernatural possibilities. Fortunately, we have come a long way.
1. WARNING: A warning is issued when severe or hazardous weather is occurring, imminent or likely. A warning means weather conditions pose a threat to life or property. People in the path of the storm need to take protective action.
2. WATCH: A watch is used when the risk of a hazardous weather event has increased significantly, but its occurrance, location or timing is still uncertain. It is intended to provide enough lead time so those who need to make alternate plans can do so.
3. ADVISORY: Advisories are issued when events are expected to stay below the warning criteria level. However, these events can still cause significant inconvenience. Common Advisories are: Wind Advisory, Snow Advisory, Heat Advisory, Coastal Flood Advisory etc.
Note: The Midland WR-300 Weather Alert Radio will display the Warning, Watch and Advisory using seperate lights. One for each type of weather event.
4. NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
5. NWS/NWR: National Weather Service/National Weather Radio
ABOUT WEATHER ALERT RADIOS
A radio receiver specifically designed to broadcast vital weather information in the event of approaching or occurring severe, dangerous and potentially life threatening weather. These receivers are referred to as emergency weather radios, weather alert radios, all hazards weather alert radios and NOAA weather radios.
EMERGENCY WEATHER ALERT RADIOS
This radio is set to turn on automaticlly, similar to an alarm clock, when emergency alerts for hazardous conditions are broadcast by NWS/NOAA. Normally an alarm will sound and then the information is given. This happens in order to awaken people so prompt action can be taken.
For example, if a tornado is heading into your county at night, the radio will sound the alarm, and the S.A.M.E. technology will give county specific emergency weather information. Some radios can use a strobe light alarm which will let you 'see' an alert or emergency warning as it comes in.
S.A.M.E. TECHNOLOGY AND WEATHER ALERT RADIOS
The S.A.M.E. (Specific Area Message Encoding), pre-determined codes are entered into the radio at set up time. This is a very simple process of entering the correct 5 digit code.
Weather alert radios such as The Midland WR-300 holds up to a maximum of 23 counties. This effectively filters out un-needed information.
S.A.M.E. Selectable Alerting of Events
While S.A.M.E. allows you to specify a particular area of interest, some weather alert radios enable you to turn off alarms for certain events which are unimportant to you.
For example, you might not be overly concerned with Volcano Warnings, but very concerned with Tornado Warnings. This feature may also be called "Event Blocking" or "Defeat Siren". The Midland WR-300 all hazards weather alert type radio has this selectable alerts feature.
Click for details on the Midland WR-300 Emergency Weather Radio
The real meaning of double trouble!
Spectacular, when viewed safely
T
Click for details on the Midland WR-300 Emergency Weather Radio
Click to Return to Top of Page
Photos courtesey of NOAA