TN Mama Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Does anyone have a weather radio they love and trust? Heading to OK to look for our new house and I was thinking we need to purchase a reliable weather radio. I've been looking at houses online and I was surprised that the great majority of homes do not have storm shelters or safe rooms. Or if they do, it's not mentioned in the house description. I saved one house to my favorite list because it DID have a shelter, with a ventilation system. Couldn't even tell you what the house looked like. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalicoKat Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 We have a weather radio. It's alarming 15 minutes before the village alarms or even TV warnings start. My dad bought it for us as a gift from Radio Shack. My dad's a weather buff and a tornado spotter. I wouldn't say that I love it because I don't think about it between alarms. But I do love the fact that I've got one so in the middle of the night when we're sleeping and not watching TV we get a warning sooner. You can program if it for your zip code and county so you're only getting alarms you'd be concerned about. It's electric with battery backup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tutor Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 We have a Midland Public Alert radio (I think that's the correct model name; manufacturer is definitely Midland). It has been very reliable and it also doubles as my alarm clock and bedroom radio. It has a very loud alarm and can be set to just alert with a siren or by turning on the weather radio so that you can hear the complete alert (we have it set on radio). You can also set it for up to 5 counties (although that would keep us up all night, so we just set it to our own county since we live smack in the center and would have plenty of warning.) My 7yo also likes to go in my room and just turn on the weather radio to listen to it. :) I'm expecting the alert to go off any time now actually. Watch went off a while ago, but I just caught a glimpse of the radar map and I don't remember ever seeing that color maroon/ purple on a radar map before. Time to unplug and hunker down. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TN Mama Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 Thanks for the responses. I will look into the models mentioned. Any others? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 They are a pain. Or at leadt the one we tried was a pain. They wake you up for no reason. Some of the news channels offer an automatic call service for...15$ a year? I'll see if I can find a link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoVanGogh Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I'm so glad you started this thread, as I have wanted to ask the same thing. We have an old weather radio, think it might be from when they first came on the market. I hate it with a passion! In fact, we have had storms all week and I have not put batteries in it nor plugged it in. The stupid thing goes off for flash floods two counties to the south of us at 2 a.m., I kid you not! Like I care at 2 a.m. if someone 100 miles down river is flooding. (Well, I do, but not to be woken from a deep sleep, if it isn't threatening my family.) We recently bought smart phones and I am trying to decide if they can take the place of a weather radio... I am a very, very light sleeper and wake at the first rumble of thunder or flash of lightening. I then get up and watch the television weather channel until the storm is passed. If we lost power, I would just rely on our cell phones or battery radio. I think a good weather radio - that you can program with your zip code - would be nice, but needed? I can't decide. On a related note. We had a tornado drop down right over our house two summers ago. (It raked our kitchen window as we were sitting there, eating supper.) The tornado sirens didn't go off for another ten minutes and the weather radio didn't go off for 15 minutes. I was talking with a meteorologist the following year and he said that tornado came out of nowhere and he was on duty at the time and they were really scrambling to get information and get on the air about that storm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 But do they have basements? Those should generally be sufficient. We have a weather radio and keep it on all the time, but I can't tell you the brand. I think maybe it's Radio Shack.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 We live near Greensburg and have a Midland weather radio and a basement. The radio is actually kind of annoying, as it goes off for any severe weather--like thunderstorms--not just tornadoes. The only reason we got it is that we no longer have regular TV (only Netflix, Hulu, etc.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I'm having trouble searching on my I-phone for the phone service. But, yes, our weather radio would go off for the every little storm warning. We have this: http://www.jimsafe.com/ in our garage that we go to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G5052 Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Ours only goes off for thunderstorm and tornado warnings in our zip code because we set it that way. The older one we have goes off for anything and everything all over the area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 We have one by Midland that's great. It's in our bedroom and I have it programmed with our zip code to alert us to severe thunderstorm warnings as well as any tornado watches/warnings. I don't mind being woken for severe thunderstorm warnings because they often contain really bad lightning and a tornado warning soon follows. So I like to be woken for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TN Mama Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 But do they have basements? Those should generally be sufficient. We have a weather radio and keep it on all the time, but I can't tell you the brand. I think maybe it's Radio Shack.... No basements in Oklahoma that I've seen. I'm having trouble searching on my I-phone for the phone service. But, yes, our weather radio would go off for the every little storm warning. We have this: http://www.jimsafe.com/ in our garage that we go to. I will definitely look into a safe room or storm celler if our home doesn't come with one. I imagine they're pretty costly to have put in. I'll need to keep that in mind. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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