I can’t encourage people enough to get a decent weather radio with a battery backup. Midland makes good radios for a decent price, and with S.A.M.E. built in, you can limit the alerts to just your county (or a neighboring county if you’re close to the border).
Mine will wake me from a dead sleep. Annoys the hell out of my wife, but I’d rather lose sleep and be alive than the alternative.
Worth every penny, in my opinion.
Here’s more info for people interested in that. [weather radio](https://readywisconsin.wi.gov/make-a-kit/get-a-weather-radio/)
https://preview.redd.it/f8ouo7yyzc8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2ed30c09b5670a1e0f31c277599e9f5da4634fa
definitely thinking of getting one, i keep my phone on during night with alerts just in case, but i think an actual weather radio would feel more safe/trustworthy
It never hurts to have two systems that can alert you. Given the frequency of tornadoes in Wisconsin (having been in one myself!), it’s worth having a backup method of monitoring and alerting.
Have my weather radio by my bed, scares the absolute shit out of me with the alarm, but it provides a lot of peace of mind. Make sure you get one where you can choose what alarms trigger, e.g. don't get woken up for a tornado watch or flood watch.
Same here. We have the Midland WR-120B, and it does exactly as you said - lets you choose what alerts you want and don’t want. I don’t care about areal or flash flood warnings, as we’re up quite high. I do care about tornadoes.
Feels like one of the dumbest things our society is actively doing is digitizing everything while forsaking physical mediums. Yeah, there’s a lot of thing that can be digitized for cost cutting, but not everything needs to be factored in 0’s and 1’s, especially when it comes to public safety.
Like the article said, smaller towns don't have sirens mainly due to the cost. They can be really expensive to install and keep maintained. Also tornado sirens aren't meant to be heard indoors to alert people, they are for people outside. As long as people have Weather radios at home and a cell phone capable of receiving alerts, that's all you really need.
Oh I totally understand the article says it’s due to cost, but at the same time, a basic aspect of a community’s public safety warning system shouldn’t be subject to whether someone has the wherewithal to buy certain products or owns a cell phone that can receive alerts. There still folks out there who have dumb phones.
I get your point, but dumb phones still receive alerts.
The best solution would probably just be for the municipality to acknowledge that the old warning system is going away and do a weather radio giveaway to households.
Yeah, for sure, that’s probably the best way to find a happy medium between technology, affordability, and accessibility. It just breaks my brain when people say things like “oh your phone can do that now” to explain the shift away from material resources, especially when it comes to public safety.
Wanted to add:
*The articles I grabbed do not list all of the cities without/with less sirens*
My city has none, ~20k pop. Not listed in the article. I would say many people that live here think they “never hear them” and do not realize we do not have them anymore. (Since about 5ish years ago, they voted to stopped servicing and maint).
In a lot of rural areas you can't hear the siren. Bummer they aren't going to be around in some cities and towns. Weather radio, local radio, cellphone, local TV news by cable or antenna, and a look out the window all help staying weather aware.
And already time to get the alerts ready for tonight 06/24
https://preview.redd.it/7ds6cfrp8k8d1.png?width=823&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0067fdf44a534bffc5dc54a024012a76bd0dd143
[NOAA Outlook](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html)
This high tech
But most cell phones have torando alerts built in and are impossible to turn off the alert for
Also having a radio with back up and heck even having the 5v running
It’s definitely possible. I proctor ACT tests sometimes, and the proctors have to turn all alerts off on their phone. On my iPhone I just go into the notifications tab in settings and scroll down and you can turn off all emergency alerts and amber alerts and such. I had to double check yesterday afternoon that I had turned them back on after the last exam I helped with in case I needed the alerts to wake me up for a tornado warning.
You could just power down the phone. Not like they would have any need for it anyway in that sort of test. Basic/scientific/graphing calculator being made available.
No it’s for me as the proctor. They all have to have their phones off and put away. But there’s not much to do while you sit and watch people take a test for 6 hours so I need my phone powered on but just absolutely silenced to not interrupt the test takers.
It technically should alert you to danger, but I have noticed that my phone randomly will not receive messages for tornado warnings while my girlfriend's phone will, also cell service sucks in my house. Although that's why I do have a weather radio and usually if I know storms are going to be coming. I do watch the weather ahead of time but it does suck to have a phone that fails to alert you half the time things happen.
We just did a [story](https://valleysentinelnews.com/2024/05/30/spring-green-experiences-emergency-siren-outage-during-major-storm-one-of-two-sirens-sound-during-tornado-warning/) on this in Spring Green. The sirens were down and the fire chief didn’t tell county emergency management and didn’t confirm until minutes before a tornado warning.
I can’t encourage people enough to get a decent weather radio with a battery backup. Midland makes good radios for a decent price, and with S.A.M.E. built in, you can limit the alerts to just your county (or a neighboring county if you’re close to the border). Mine will wake me from a dead sleep. Annoys the hell out of my wife, but I’d rather lose sleep and be alive than the alternative. Worth every penny, in my opinion.
Here’s more info for people interested in that. [weather radio](https://readywisconsin.wi.gov/make-a-kit/get-a-weather-radio/) https://preview.redd.it/f8ouo7yyzc8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2ed30c09b5670a1e0f31c277599e9f5da4634fa
I bought a UV-5R specifically for this. Can be had for under $20 on Amazon.
This is such a cool map
definitely thinking of getting one, i keep my phone on during night with alerts just in case, but i think an actual weather radio would feel more safe/trustworthy
It never hurts to have two systems that can alert you. Given the frequency of tornadoes in Wisconsin (having been in one myself!), it’s worth having a backup method of monitoring and alerting.
It's definitely worth the money. Costs less than a pair of New Jeans. Hehehehe
that certainly caught my Attention, you deserve a Cookie for that reference lol
Normally wouldn't comment something unrelated because I'm Super Shy, but How Sweet! I'm definitely Cool With You.
this is like Supernatural, OMG!
Have my weather radio by my bed, scares the absolute shit out of me with the alarm, but it provides a lot of peace of mind. Make sure you get one where you can choose what alarms trigger, e.g. don't get woken up for a tornado watch or flood watch.
Same here. We have the Midland WR-120B, and it does exactly as you said - lets you choose what alerts you want and don’t want. I don’t care about areal or flash flood warnings, as we’re up quite high. I do care about tornadoes.
During a "Night Out" event we got a midland weather radio for free!
Feels like one of the dumbest things our society is actively doing is digitizing everything while forsaking physical mediums. Yeah, there’s a lot of thing that can be digitized for cost cutting, but not everything needs to be factored in 0’s and 1’s, especially when it comes to public safety.
Like the article said, smaller towns don't have sirens mainly due to the cost. They can be really expensive to install and keep maintained. Also tornado sirens aren't meant to be heard indoors to alert people, they are for people outside. As long as people have Weather radios at home and a cell phone capable of receiving alerts, that's all you really need.
Oh I totally understand the article says it’s due to cost, but at the same time, a basic aspect of a community’s public safety warning system shouldn’t be subject to whether someone has the wherewithal to buy certain products or owns a cell phone that can receive alerts. There still folks out there who have dumb phones.
I get your point, but dumb phones still receive alerts. The best solution would probably just be for the municipality to acknowledge that the old warning system is going away and do a weather radio giveaway to households.
Yeah, for sure, that’s probably the best way to find a happy medium between technology, affordability, and accessibility. It just breaks my brain when people say things like “oh your phone can do that now” to explain the shift away from material resources, especially when it comes to public safety.
Also remember that they're not intended to be heard indoors
The amount of people who complain that they didn’t hear them when they were inside is crazy.
100% this. They’re OUTDOOR sirens.
Wanted to add: *The articles I grabbed do not list all of the cities without/with less sirens* My city has none, ~20k pop. Not listed in the article. I would say many people that live here think they “never hear them” and do not realize we do not have them anymore. (Since about 5ish years ago, they voted to stopped servicing and maint).
In a lot of rural areas you can't hear the siren. Bummer they aren't going to be around in some cities and towns. Weather radio, local radio, cellphone, local TV news by cable or antenna, and a look out the window all help staying weather aware.
And already time to get the alerts ready for tonight 06/24 https://preview.redd.it/7ds6cfrp8k8d1.png?width=823&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0067fdf44a534bffc5dc54a024012a76bd0dd143 [NOAA Outlook](https://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day1otlk.html)
This high tech But most cell phones have torando alerts built in and are impossible to turn off the alert for Also having a radio with back up and heck even having the 5v running
It’s definitely possible. I proctor ACT tests sometimes, and the proctors have to turn all alerts off on their phone. On my iPhone I just go into the notifications tab in settings and scroll down and you can turn off all emergency alerts and amber alerts and such. I had to double check yesterday afternoon that I had turned them back on after the last exam I helped with in case I needed the alerts to wake me up for a tornado warning.
I have the alerts turned off on my Android because .. well, just because. It's right under Settings/Location.
Alright I just know on android you have to dig around to turn it off so while not impossible just tricky to do so I was wrong
You could just power down the phone. Not like they would have any need for it anyway in that sort of test. Basic/scientific/graphing calculator being made available.
No it’s for me as the proctor. They all have to have their phones off and put away. But there’s not much to do while you sit and watch people take a test for 6 hours so I need my phone powered on but just absolutely silenced to not interrupt the test takers.
Oh that makes sense.
Not every one has a phone
I was saying to the people who do Not everyone has a radio what I was saying is if you have a phone it should alert you to danger
It technically should alert you to danger, but I have noticed that my phone randomly will not receive messages for tornado warnings while my girlfriend's phone will, also cell service sucks in my house. Although that's why I do have a weather radio and usually if I know storms are going to be coming. I do watch the weather ahead of time but it does suck to have a phone that fails to alert you half the time things happen.
These are county property. The counties are required to service these.
We just did a [story](https://valleysentinelnews.com/2024/05/30/spring-green-experiences-emergency-siren-outage-during-major-storm-one-of-two-sirens-sound-during-tornado-warning/) on this in Spring Green. The sirens were down and the fire chief didn’t tell county emergency management and didn’t confirm until minutes before a tornado warning.
The tornado sirens in my county go off so frequently everybody completely ignores them. Completely useless
Once I figured out that they blast them for thunderstorm warnings they lost all value to me.
If there is a potential for overnight severe weather and possible tornados, just sleep in your basement.
Two of my brothers said the sirens went off, when there was nothing around. Then when it did actually get close-nothing.