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Get a weather radio if you don't have one. For about 20-40 bucks, you can get one with rechargeable batteries and a charging cradle. Follow the instructions to

Get a weather radio if you don't have one. For about 20-40 bucks, you can get one with rechargeable batteries and a charging cradle. Follow the instructions to set it for your regional station. It will wake up and sound the alert for any warnings in your area. Plus you can actively listen to it for the latest storm news. As long as you still have power & internet, your local tv station will usually stream during weather emergencies. I've done this on more than one stormy day. Sat comfortably on the couch watching one stream on the iPad while another played on the television. Wondering if this was going to be the day when it finally hit. On your phone, get RadarScope. It's highly worth the 5 or 10 dollars. It's a detailed radar app. Has many different radar products. Can see the usual storm views with warnings outlined. the relative velocity to see the spin. correlation coefficient to determine if there's a debris ball. Etc. Shows the estimated tracking path for storm cells. For the many storms in my area, this has been invaluable. Probably the most important resource is NOAA's local prediction pages and the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). During storm seasons, the SPC's Convective Outlook is worth checking at least once a day to see if anything's likely in the near future. Plus the mesoscale discussions are useful on the storm day to see how the forecasters think the events will play out. For local reporting by locals, Twitter is surprisingly useful. Look for a hashtag that contains the two letter abbreviation for your state plus the letters "wx". I follow #kswx for Kansas storms.

dave78 5y ago
Seconding the recommendation for a weather radio. If you get a good one, you can program it with your SAME code (basically a region code) and also select which types of alerts you want it to sound for. I have one next to my bed since we're on the upper level of a 2-story house with it set to only alert on severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings. This gives me confidence that I will be alerted if there's an issue and still have time to make it to the basement. This is the radio I have, and though I have a few small complaints overall I'm very happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/Sangean-CL-100-Certified-Table-Top-Stations/dp/B003QHXZM4 https://www.amazon.com/Sangean-CL-100-Certified-Table-Top-St... As a side note, having lived my whole life in the Midwest I've always dealt with tornados and know how they work, and it's shocking how little a lot of other people here seem to know. I guess if you don't have a few tornado watches/warnings a year then you just don't ever learn about them. The amount of ridiculous takes in these comments is really something - you don't find out about tornados before you go to work so you can stay home, or have time when there's a tornado warning to get in your car and go for a drive or anything like that. If you're lucky you have 5-10 minutes notice, but it's common to get only 30 seconds or so of warning. People who live in the Midwest know that when you hear a tornado warning (around here they sound the civil defense sirens, but also weather radio and phone alerts), you go to your place of shelter immediately.

dave78 5y ago

Seconding the recommendation for a weather radio. If you get a good one, you can program it with your SAME code (basically a region code) and also select which types of alerts you want it to sound for. I have one next to my bed since we're on the upper level of a 2-story house with it set to only alert on severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings. This gives me confidence that I will be alerted if there's an issue and still have time to make it to the basement. This is the radio I have, and though I have a few small complaints overall I'm very happy with it: https://www.amazon.com/Sangean-CL-100-Certified-Table-Top-Stations/dp/B003QHXZM4 https://www.amazon.com/Sangean-CL-100-Certified-Table-Top-St... As a side note, having lived my whole life in the Midwest I've always dealt with tornados and know how they work, and it's shocking how little a lot of other people here seem to know. I guess if you don't have a few tornado watches/warnings a year then you just don't ever learn about them. The amount of ridiculous takes in these comments is really something - you don't find out about tornados before you go to work so you can stay home, or have time when there's a tornado warning to get in your car and go for a drive or anything like that. If you're lucky you have 5-10 minutes notice, but it's common to get only 30 seconds or so of warning. People who live in the Midwest know that when you hear a tornado warning (around here they sound the civil defense sirens, but also weather radio and phone alerts), you go to your place of shelter immediately.