NWS now offers text/email/SMS alerts!

this is a sweet feature I'm suprised its free though. I kinda hope I don't get a text for every single severe/tornado watch, severe/tornado warning and flashflood warnings, and meso disc. too bad you can't just have it to particular warnings.
 
As an owner of one of those private alert services I find
myself torn.

Yes, I want people to get the alerts when they need them.
But then my business is sending out alerts of this type.

I still find it odd that NOAA is ran by the Dept. of Commerce.
A department that supposed to support business, instead they
are hurting mine, to a small degree.

In the end, I will put my system against theirs in a speed test any day!

I would suspect it will run as well as their free radar feeds during
outbreaks. :)


You get what you pay for..

Tim
 
Tim Shriver said:
As an owner of one of those private alert services I find
myself torn.

Yes, I want people to get the alerts when they need them.
But then my business is sending out alerts of this type.

I still find it odd that NOAA is ran by the Dept. of Commerce.
A department that supposed to support business, instead they
are hurting mine, to a small degree.

In the end, I will put my system against theirs in a speed test any day!

I would suspect it will run as well as their free radar feeds during
outbreaks. :)


You get what you pay for..

Tim
Click to expand...

Tim, I understand your concern. I also think that the NWS and other government agencies have a "duty" to share that info with the public because that's our tax dollars at work. I'm paying for the alerts already; Why shouldn't they do the best they can to make sure that the public gets the best product back?
 
Jerry Prsha said:
Tim, I understand your concern. I also think that the NWS and other government agencies have a "duty" to share that info with the public because that's our tax dollars at work. I'm paying for the alerts already; Why shouldn't they do the best they can to make sure that the public gets the best product back?
Click to expand...

Playing Devil's Advocate here, a portion of your tax dollars already go towards broadcasting NWR. However, DOC/NOAA/NWS does not make NWR receivers. Private companies do, and you have to buy from them. I'm not sure how this situation is much different, except now the government is making the radios and offering them for free.
 
Chris Nuttall said:
Playing Devil's Advocate here, a portion of your tax dollars already go towards broadcasting NWR. However, DOC/NOAA/NWS does not make NWR receivers. Private companies do, and you have to buy from them. I'm not sure how this situation is much different, except now the government is making the radios and offering them for free.
Click to expand...

If we use that analogy, then it could be said that the NWS does not make cell phones. Companies do. You need one to receive these broadcasts.

Having said that, I've been following this thread with interest. A viable option to this NWS service is to use one of the EMWIN programs out there (only a moderate cost) and use it to send SMS messages to your cellphone; in most cases you can really dial down to the type of alerts you want and when you want them. Worth checking out.
 
Jerry Prsha said:
Tim, I understand your concern. I also think that the NWS and other government agencies have a "duty" to share that info with the public because that's our tax dollars at work. I'm paying for the alerts already; Why shouldn't they do the best they can to make sure that the public gets the best product back?
Click to expand...

The reason they shouldent is because people like Tim want to profit off of our tax dollar at work. People like Tim need to realise that it is the national weather service that issues these warnings, and its there job to get them out to the public. If them doing there job on our taxpayer money hurts your buisness, cry me a river. There doing what they are supposed to be doing.
 
I suspect 90% of the beef some have against this service is in the fact that it's free. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the same criticism would hit anyone who set up a similar, but free service.
 
Zachary Lassiter said:
The reason they shouldent is because people like Tim want to profit off of our tax dollar at work. People like Tim need to realise that it is the national weather service that issues these warnings, and its there job to get them out to the public. If them doing there job on our taxpayer money hurts your buisness, cry me a river. There doing what they are supposed to be doing.
Click to expand...

A. We have never "profited" from the alert business. It has and was expected
to be a loss each and every year. I do not take any pay
and I invest far more into it in a year then it makes.

B. We are a dissemination service. I know it and NOAA knows it.
http://www.weather.gov/emwin/winven.htm

C. We have been serving first responders, EMM, schools, utilities, law enforement etc. with fast, dependable alerts long before the NWS caught on to it.


Please don't bash what I do without knowing the story and the person behind it.

Like I said prior, I am torn on it as it tugs at two sides of me.

In the end I think there is room for us all.

Even "people like" You.

Tim
 
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We've been under a tornado watch for about half an hour. I realised I never got a text, so I went to the site. http://inws.wrh.noaa.gov/

iNWS is currently down for routine maintenance.​
We are sorry for any inconvience this may cause, we will be up and running again shortly!​
Click to expand...


Not good timing with a moderate risk....hmm....
 
This is the worse service ever...all it will do is run up your bill. Trust me, don't sign up for this.

I did today and I received 48 messages, only 2 of them being useful. This alert system might work well if they told you what county the warning is for! Especially not having data on the road today. So all the text messages it sent me said something like this...

"New event. Tornado Warning from 3/23/09 4:45pm to 3/23/09 5:20pm for Home"(home is the eastern half of NEB, that I asked for alerts from)

It doesn't tell you the county that the alert is for! the only way this service is good, is if you label each county as a separate "area" and use the county name for it, I guess then it might work.

EDIT: if you use each county as a separate "area" it should work well, I just didn't realize it was only going to send the name of the warning and the time. I might use this again later after all.
 
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Not to dig up old threads but...

I was wondering now that this has been available for several months how is it working out for those using it? After being subscribed for a few months I decided today to fill out the survey and let NWS know my opinions. A couple problems I have found:

It lists my carrier (Allltel) as one that is supported but I cannot receive any notifications via text message. Yes I am aware of the current block on adding new numbers but I added my number back in April.

Another problem is the inability to sort out specific messages. Mostly I get RFDSGF messages like clockwork. Don't really want or need these but they seem to be included no matter what.

Reading back through the thread, I don't support government competition with private industry, but in this instance I hope the bugs get worked out of this program. The majority of the apathetic sheep (read general public) are not going to pay to subscribe to a program like this. BUT, if it is highly publicized, free and sponsored by mama bird (the guvmint) then millions of baby birds (citizens) will likely sign up. This is quite likely the absolute best way to disseminate warning information. We've established sirens are an outdoor warning device, most people don't own weather radios, and most TVs aren't on at 0300 when that nocturnal EF-5 is bearing down on Anytown, USA.
 
I started this with Sprint/Nextel and switched to Verizon and have had no problems at all with either phone. I know just recently there was an overload on the servers so they discontinued sending messages to cell phones, but I think it is up and running again. Mine has been working great.
 
I've been on the program since February via Sprint and have had no issues. If there was discontinuance of issued warnings to cell phones, I wouldn't have noticed as my settings are for SVR weather and as you all know there has been no rain in San Antonio since April, much less SVR weather.

Overall I think it's a valuable program for an increasingly mobile society. I don't use my cell phone for web applications so getting the text messages is more than adequate to give me a general idea of the situation and get me on the 'puter to really investigate the matter.
 
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