NWS now offers text/email/SMS alerts!

James Hammett said:
FYI, this service was discontinued on October 11th for everyone but EM's, NWS personnel, and the media. I received this email on 9/24:

The NWS has made a decision to provide iNWS services only to NWS core partners as defined within our new Terms of Use Agreement at http://inws.wrh.noaa.gov/page/tos. A complete description of the iNWS service is available in our new Service Description Document at http://products.weather.gov/PDD/MDSS_National_SDD_Final_070710.pdf.
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I received an email around that time asking me to renew if I'd like to keep the alerts. I did so and got a response within five minutes saying they would continue. I'm not a member of any of the listed entities above...
 
Robert Dewey said:
They should cut the media out as well... do our tax dollars really need to provide profit-driven corporations with free services?
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You bet...especially when lives depend on it. It's a whole lot better than what some of your tax dollars are going toward.
 
Jason Boggs said:
You bet...especially when lives depend on it. It's a whole lot better than what some of your tax dollars are going toward.
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If lives depend on that information, why are they stripping public access? As Rob Dale said, the media should already have that information via other sources; if they are reliant on text messages for delivery of public safety products, they're already a few steps behind. This service is redundant at best (for media), and is better suited as a public-facing product IMO.
 
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I think that if they are no longer providing it a service for the public, why not just get rid of it altogether? Like was stated before, the only other people left on this list are people that are already going to have this information from one if not multiple sources before they get the text. Why waste the resources?
 
Robert Dewey said:
If lives depend on that information, why are they stripping public access?
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Because 1) the private sector already provides this and 2) the resources needed to disseminate text messages to some EMs and media outlets is MUCH MUCH MUCH lower than sending them to the entire US population.

Jayson Prentice said:
the only other people left on this list are people that are already going to have this information from one if not multiple sources before they get the text. Why waste the resources?
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You'd think that EM's already have a good source of weather info, but you'd be shocked to actually know what they use... This is better than most.
 
They don't need to. As to why -- well, the NWS gets into a lot of areas that they don't need to. But it looks good when they tell Congress/the public what they've accomplished.
 
Does anyone know if there is a service that will send text warnings for ALL tornado warnings issued within the U.S.? A service that you do not have to define a particular zip code, city or region? Thanks.

Dave
 
Thanks, Tim. Which service is best to just receive tornado warning messages for the U.S.? The Pro Alert indicates that up to 5 counties are covered for any state, but can I receive tornado warnings for all counties in all states? Thanks.
 
RealEMWIN can run on your computer and send any/all warnings to any/all formats you want. No recurring costs.
 
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