Weather Radio (Omaha: home, to buy, tornado)

[Off Pavement]

Now that we've moved to Nebraska and obtained a programmable weather radio, I wonder why anyone would not have one. The last couple days have been big weather makers, and I'm sure the little radios can be lifesavers.

My weather radio is fully programmable so I can add or delete counties that are under the gun weatherwise. We live almost on the county line with two other counties, and have those counties programmed to alert us when storms are in those areas as well as our own county, but the storm activity in those counties reported has always been well away from our place, and the alerts for our home county have been spot on and timely.

Now I appreciate knowing where a storm is coming from, but between the number of thunderstorm, flood, and tornado watches and warnings, we seem to be alerted more than I anticipated, and I'm considering dropping the alerts for the two nearby counties and see if we get killed.

What do you do?

[Dave1215]

What do I do? generally just keep an eye on the sky/wind/humidity... if conditions are right I'll be a little more concious about listening to the local talk radio station (1110am KFAB in Omaha) or having the TV on tuned to a local tv station (3, 6, or 7 in Omaha)... that radio station and those tv stations provide excellent coverage.

As soon as I see on radar that the weather is moving in then I'll generally grab the camera and go outside... have captured some cool pictures the last week.

[itsMeFred]

We can't get much of a signal for a weather radio... :P On the other hand, we have the radar page from weatherunderground.com up all the time so we can see what's going on.

[lisalynn]

Last night wunderground weather and my scanner kept me in touch, we have Dish Network and basically did not have any tv last night. I like having the scanner I know exactly where the weather spotters are at and you hear what is going on before the radio even announces it.

[itsMeFred]

oh yeah...
DH is also a trained weather spotter/volunteer fireman, so we have a radio in the house. Also, the NWS calls periodically to see what it's doing in our part of the county.

I kind of forgot that. lol

[BobKovacs]

Like you, we recently moved to a tornado-prone state (GA), and bought a weather radio the first time we had a bad storm. I also find it odd that the long-time residents don't seem as concerned about having them- it's all the newcomers that run to buy them....lol. I think they're most useful for the storms that pop up in the middle of the night- when there's bad weather predicted during the day, we're usually watching the news and they do an incredible job of tracking the storms- but at night, you'd have no warning without the radio, since the sirens aren't all that easy to hear from inside the house.

[Artiste]

Off Pavement, and/or other members, where did you purchase this radio?

Do you need a type of service activated to use it (like satellite radio, cable, etc...)?

I am interested in purchasing one of these, but I am new to the product and how it works.
Thanks!

[tpabes]

I got mine at wal-mart, so about any place that sells radios probably has them. Hardware stores might have them as well. You do not need to activate service. Mine does not have any alarm, its a regular radio that has a button for the weather frequency, and it cost $15.

[itsMeFred]

This link will tell you if you can even pick up a signal. (Most people can!)

NOAA stations for Nebraska

We aren't within broadcast distance of any of those towns, though, so all we got on our weather radio was fuzz...

[Sandhills Guru]

I think scanners can provide a lot of info also, especially if you get tuned into the local weather watchers.