Hurricane Florence is scheduled to stall and make a lengthy stay on the East Coast. Forecasters predict that before it hits landfall, Florence will grow to a category 5. You need to stay on top of the latest weather alerts if you live along the Atlantic.
The National Weather Service (NWS) provides automatic weather alerts and warnings over the radio and TV, but it doesn’t send email or SMS alerts. This can be a problem if you didn’t evacuate and you’re hunkered down with nothing but a phone.
Here are three ways to be sure you have weather alerts as soon as they happen, no matter where you are. (And here’s how to stretch your phone’s battery life.)
AccuWeather app
This is the app I personally use. When there’s an alert or warning, the app will send a notification to your phone. The notification is loud and annoying, so it’s sure to wake you up if you happen to fall asleep. I also like all of the goodies the app provides, like real-time maps, pollen counts and news. It’s available from the iTunes Store and the Google Play store for free.
Check Google’s crisis map
The Google Crisis Map tracks storms and maps the predicted path so you can know if the storm is turning, or heading right for you. You can also look at storms that are farther out to sea to make preparations for them, too.
Call Loop
You can get weather alerts texted to your phone with Call Loop. Text WEATHER to 38470 and you’ll get free texts with the latest information from the National Weather Service.
Watch this: On Mount Washington, weather watching is risky business
4:24
Disaster Alert by Pacific Disaster Center
This app will send weather and disaster (natural or man-made) alerts to any device. It also provides maps with detailed information about the safety of an area. For example, you can see if an area is flooded or has biomedical dangers. It’s available for iOS or Android.
Turn your LEDs into a warning system with this how-to.