Severe Weather Awareness

Every year, the National Weather Service sets aside a National Severe Weather Preparedness Week, and in cooperation with local and state emergency management agencies (EMA), often called Offices of Emergency Management (OEM), set aside weeks every year in each state to bring greater public awareness to the threat of severe weather.  Days are set aside to highlight the dangers of tornadoes, lightning, hail, damaging winds and flash flooding.  WeatherCall thanks you for your business, first and foremost!  We also want to encourage you to share your service with friends, neighbors and family.  Send them THIS LINK in an email.  Help THEM prepare for the dangers of severe weather and make sure they are warned in the same manner you are through WeatherCall, the nation's most accurate, timely, reliable and tested severe weather phone calling service.  Proven millions and millions (and millions) of times. What can you do to Prepare? One way is to have or make a personal safety plan, practice that plan with all members of your family, and make sure your WeatherCall subscriptions are up to date.  If you have out of town children, buy them WeatherCall as a gift.

The National Weather Service and FEMA are also urging everyone in the nation to prepare for all kinds of weather disasters using a campaign called "Be a Force of Nature".  And WeatherCall wants to remind you that choosing the right products to keep your family safe can be a matter of life and death.

While NOAA Weather Radios are a reliable way to receive a county-wide warning, the National Weather Service(NWS) stopped issuing county-wide warnings in 2007.  Then tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and flash floods threaten, the NWS storm specific warnings for specific locations on a map.  Like the example shown, sometimes these warnings cover parts of many counties.  This is important.  All weather radios, most outdoor warning sirens, and almost of the new 'free' tornado apps, or severe weather apps, are COUNTY-based, not storm based.  Even though you might want to download one of these new 'free' apps, nothing delivers the accuracy, reliability and phone calling ability of WeatherCall, where we will call any and all kinds of phones; wired phones, 'dumb' call phones, 'smart' cell phones.  We do not discreminate who deserves to be 'called' to take action.  We also do not over-warn.   It's one of the safety features of WeatherCall.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) partnered to designate March 3-9, 2013, as National Severe Weather Preparedness Week, and is calling upon all Americans to Be a Force of Nature.

WeatherCall is committed to Being a Force of Nature and pledges to do so by: knowing our risk, taking action, and being an example for our families and community by sharing the steps we took. Because we all live in an areas prone to tornadoes, flash floods, and severe thunderstorms, the recent severe weather and tornadoes reminds us that this weather can strike anywhere and at any time.

Just last year, there were more than 450 weather-related fatalities and nearly 2,600 injuries. Each time severe weather threatens we hear stories of ordinary Americans who do the extraordinary to save loved ones – a mother protecting her children by shielding them from flying debris, a homeowner opening up his storm shelter to neighbors, neighbors helping a senior in a wheelchair get to a safe shelter, individuals ensuring friends are aware of the current watch or warning in their area.

Tornadoes struck approximately 46 states, caused over $1.6 billion in damage and nearly 70 fatalities. There were more than 935 tornadoes in 2012, with 206 in April alone. While April and May are peak months, tornadoes happen all year round.

Building a Weather-Ready Nation requires that every individual and community take action because severe weather knows no boundaries and affects us all. Be a Force of Nature by making a public pledge to be prepared at ready.gov/severe-weather.