0287 – Another MUST HAVE App to Increase Your Personal Safety

I am a firm believer that our smart phones can provide a tremendous amount of information to help us to stay safe.  A few months back my sister turned me onto an app for my iPhone to help keep track of dangerous weather.  Today we are going to take a look at the NOAA Weather Radio App.

[display_podcast]

Admin:


Weather Radios

For a long time I have been a big fan of weather radios.  I typically spend a few minutes each day looking at a weather forecast on the internet and I’m not so bad at being able to give myself a general forecast  for the area that I live in based on current conditions and how they are changing, but there are times that we need to have specifics.  Severe weather comes to mind:

  • Winter weather
  • High Winds
  • Thunderstorms
  • Tornadic Activity
Are all potentially dangerous conditions that I want to know about and my “general forecast” just isn’t good enough especially with more severe weather which can build up with little notice and time can be an important factor in my safety.  In addition, there are a plethora of warnings that could be delivered by the NOAA through a weather radio that I have no hope of forecasting unless I am in the middle of it.
  • Civil disturbances
  • Chemical spills
  • Biological hazards
  • etc
It is these kinds of disasters that I really depend on my weather radio to keep me informed.  SAME weather radios allow you to program your radio to receive specific alerts for your location.  Pretty convenient.
Advantages of a SAME Weather Radio
  • Radio can be customized for locations that are important to you
  • Alerts can be customized to alerts that are important to you
  • Once programmed the radios are passive
The big problem is there is no really convenient way to carry a SAME radio with you on a regular basis.
  • Radios are big
  • Battery operated
  • Have to be with you to help
The NOAA Weather Radio App eliminates the negatives of carrying a SAME radio.

What the NOAA Weather Radio App Does

Lots of stuff:

  • Listen to NOAA weather radio broadcasts
  • View NOAA Forecasts
  • View NOAA Maps
  • Most importantly it allows you to receive SAME Alerts from the NOAA

Why the App is worth the $1.99

  • Adds additional function to the smart phone you carry with you all the time
  • Provides important safety information in a timely manner
  • Eliminates the middle man that you depend on with other apps

How the NOAA Weather App Could Be Improved

  • Simplify the interface for selecting areas that you will receive alerts
  • Enable alerts to sound when the phone is on silent
  • Use the GPS to enable alerts based on your physical location.
I don’t feel like the app should take the place of a counter top SAME radio but is serves as a great supplement so get a hold of the NOAA Weather Radio App
NOAA website.

 

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *