Topic: Wx radios great--when the NWS actually sends out watches...

[ncpilot]

We're under a tornado watch, with a warning in a county 2 over, and my Midland is showing nothing... ! 

I have it set to only announce for warnings, but the light still comes on for watches, and has in the past shown tornado watches...

Called the local NWS office to let them know... we'll see if it comes on shortly or not.

Makes you pause and consider the situation where a warning is not broadcast, or at least the S.A.M.E isn't broadcast to bring alive your weather radio...

[Mark / Ohio]

Looks like your probably in the thick of it now.  Stay safe down there Marc!

[ncpilot]

Hitting a rain rate of 5.5"/hr...

Left the car outside so it would get clean  we're still under water use restrictions...

Not much in the way of electrical activity or wind.

Finally got a severe thunderstorm warning that set off my radio, but it never did get the tornado watch...

[Mark / Ohio]

That's good to hear!  Looks like some light rain and scattered light stuff now unless one of those small ones to the West of you decides to puff up.

[WeatherHost]

That's why we have at least 4 sources at the office.  NOAA Radio, WXMesg (EMWIN) software, placefiles on GR3 Radar and text/cell phone.

I imagine at least one of them will let us know something.

[MesquiteWx]

What Midland radio are you using?

[ncpilot]

WR-300...

There was one other incident in the past where the local weather radio xmission stopped, and they weren't aware of it at the local NWS office... my phone call to them got it activated again... can't remember what the issue was...

You might be surprised that broadcasters (tv, radio) sometimes only monitor their outgoing signal, not their xmitted signal, so they think everything's hunky-dory until someone calls them to let them know they are off-line... well, at least it has happened here...

Which is why I also monitor several sources when weather is approaching.

Of course, the weather radio was voice broadcasting the warnings and watches, it's just that they didn't send out the SAME signal for the watch, the warning signal was sent and triggered my radio...

[MesquiteWx]

That is the same one I use as well. I use it to stream the feed online. I had the alerts turned off so I just received the LED indicator and LED message. I heard when the alert was on it would turn the radio off after the alert. I was reading just now that if that is off it will disable ext alert functions such as  my Strobe I have connected. Since I can not hear the alert since I have it connected to the computer to stream and I have the line in muted so I don't hear it I connected the strobe. So I had to turn the alerts back on so that would function properly. I have the WR-100 in the living room though that I normally hear. I might need to call my local office because over the past couple of weeks the only alerts I have received is Thunderstorm watch and weekly tests. We have been under several watches and warnings since like winter storm warning, flood warnings, fire warnings etc. and nothing was received. We are expecting bad weather today and tonight so I will test things further and the shutting off problem people have talked about. I am not sure if my radio shut up when I got alerts or not but I guess we will find out. Really can not afford for it to since it feeds NWS online stream and local cable radar as well. Glad you brought this up because I have been curious about why I don't receive certain watches and warnings. Might need to keep and eye on thing and contact them if I am not receiving them.

[weatherforyou]

Many (I believe most) NWSFOs only send out the data bursts and alerts on NWR for certain warnings because when the lights and alarms go off it should mean action needs to be taken immediately to protect life and property.  When I was Chairman for the Sacramento-Sierra Emergency Alert System shortly after EAS and SAME was initiated in 1997 we  jointly decided the public should be educated that if they hear the data bursts it means there's a "short fuse" event that needs attention NOW.  Activating for watches and statements would cause people to start ignoring the alerts since there would be substantially more "advisory" events.

A Winter Storm Warning does not pose imminent danger, however a severe winter storm could cause other alerts to be triggered which require immediate action (Civil Emergency, Evacuation).  In most areas a Flood Warning doesn't even trigger the system, but a FLASH Flood Warning would.  Watches mean something MIGHT happen.

I know the policy varies by Operational Area, but this is the general policy I've heard in dozens of areas I've worked with.

[weatherforyou]

BTW... the decisions of what to activate on are usually dictated by the Local Emergency Communications Committee (LECC) which is made up of radio stations, the NWS and other local, state and federal agencies.  So if the NWS says they don't activate watches because of the "Local Plan" they're not just using it as an excuse. 

[MesquiteWx]

That makes a lot of sense Joe. I can see where people would start to ignore the alerts if the were always fired off for something minor. I know with the WR-300 you have the option to what alerts you want to make alertable. It would still be nice for them to send them anyways. To play devils advocate for a second. A perfect example is right now we are under a Flash Flood Watch. Now while that doesn't mean it will happen just that it could. My radio doesn't even show the LED indicator or message for Flash Flood Watch. So at the best case you would think they could send like a silent alert for those radios equipped with this kind of warnings notification so it will atleast show the indicator or message on our screens. Now granted the Watch was sent at 3 pm today and does actually start until Monday so I am not sure if that matters or not. I am just going by my HamWeather Warnings Service which is pretty darn accurate. So to me if I see that and the NWS doesn't show an alert or atleast a message I am going to think it must not really be all that important. So it could go both ways. You alert to much people will ignore them, don't alert enough and people might not take the other seriously.

You make a great point though Joe. I know the only warnings and watches I have received this year to date is Thunderstorm and Tornado. We have had are fair share of other warnings and watches over the past couple of weeks but nothing was triggered. Storm season is on horizon so I will keep an eye out on what the NWS offices triggers and what they don't.

[ncpilot]

But... SAME weather radios, like the Midland at least, give you the choice of whether a watch will trigger an audible or not. However, if the NWS never sends out the watch signal, then what's the point of having the radio? (rhetorical) Granted, the Midland is a severe pain in the ass to set up, since you have to cancel every single alert you don't want...

When every other source is showing a Tornado Watch, but my weather radio indicator doesn't light up, then wouldn't you think something isn't quite right?

My radio is set to only have an audible alarm for Warnings, and then, only a very few specific ones. And it did go off for the severe thunderstorm warning.

Just north of me there was a confirmed F0 (at least based on early news reports), and some other damage from estimated 90-100 mph winds--but my radio never indicated a Tornado Watch.

I'm going to follow up on this issue Monday to see if it was an oversight or intentional... it was an active night with a lot of counties involved, so I'm sure the local office was busy...

[ncpilot]

Well... the answer is troubling...

I spoke with a forecaster who said his radio did indicate a tornado watch (we're in the same county), but 2 counties north of me some people reported that their radios did not show a watch...

No conclusion or resolution on this one, except that you can't necessarily put your trust 100% on a weather radio.

If a watch didn't trigger it, then it's always possible that neither would a warning...

[MesquiteWx]

A lot of this also depends on what station you are receiving your forecast from. We are getting a lot of bad weather tonight which is the start of a 3 day system here. So I was talking to this other guy about it. He was saying if your radio isn't on the station you are currently monitoring or you are not within that zone it will not trigger. It will only trigger if you are within that zone for which the same code it is in. So if you are on the transmission for the country to the north then the SAME code for your county will not trigger and vice versa. Also if you are not within their broadcast range then it also will not trigger if a alert is sent.

[ncpilot]

Well, yes... I figured that was obvious...

We had a multi-county area last Sat that was under a tornado watch, my county and all surrounding counties had the same watch.

As I said prior, a forecaster with a weather radio in my county said his radio indicated the watch--mine didn't. People 2 counties north of me had problems with no watches. Later that evening my radio activated with a warning...

Again, we were all under a watch at the same time...

I'd have to check the frequencies, but I believe the station in Winnabow serves a multi-county area, but the counties have different SAME codes--so even though Brunswick county will have the same tornado watch as New Hanover, they can still get separate watches/warnings for their nuclear reactor facility that I'll never see/hear, unless I add their SAME code to the radio programming.

As one can see, all the counties are covered by the same station...

[MesquiteWx]

Very strange, could be a couple of things but it still doesn't explain some of the other issues you are having. I will elaborate later. I need to get to work right now though.