MICHIGAN, USA — As severe weather approaches, there is typically only a short amount of time to make life-saving decisions. For your safety, it is important that you have multiple ways to stay weather aware and relieve critical weather information.
There are five direct ways in which you can receive weather alerts. The first is NOAA Weather Radio, this is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting weather info directly from the national weather service. In the weather world, we often refer to them as the “smoke detector” for severe weather, because it will automatically sound an alarm in the case of a natural disaster or severe weather.
There is also always your local tv station and radio station. The 13 On Your Side Weather Department streams on-air and online during an active storm. You can stream our broadcast via the 13 On Your Side App. It's free to download in your app store.
Smartphones and computers are other options. We have a 13 On Your Side Weather App that will allow you to track the storm and receive alerts. You can even have devices like Alexa or Google Play alert you to severe weather. It's all a matter of going into your settings and turning on the alerts.
Outdoor sirens are also an option, as they will go off in the threat of immediate danger, but are only meant to be heard outdoors. So, if you are inside this should not be how you receive your severe weather alerts. Outdoors sirens can also be unreliable, difficult for those hard of hearing and go off for other reasons beyond tornadoes. Thus, you should always have another way of receiving critical weather alerts in addition to outdoor sirens.
While all of those methods are great, none of them are full-proof. So we suggest having two ways to receive alerts at all times.
If you have any questions in regards to what we just went over or severe weather in general please text us at 616-559-1310.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.