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Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 3:07 PM

With all the flooding and crazy weather going on out there, it seems difficult to get real time weather reports.

I'm specifically talking about the recent flooding and tornados hitting various parts of the country.

I'm interested in three areas of the US, but, in general what do you use for your latest weather news?

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#1

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 3:12 PM

Talk radio covers the local weather in real time all day here.

For national/world weather I rely on the evening news.

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#2

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 3:57 PM
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#33
In reply to #2

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/05/2015 1:28 PM

Alright, Fred, we know why you like that channel, and it has not much to do with weather! But the whole magic 8 ball works for me, and is at least as accurate within a factor 2.

Lyn: I think you should watch Fox News to get news AND weather. Sometimes one has to fast forward through all the "fluff stuff" to get to the meat of the situation.

The Weather Channel can be next to useless if you want to zero in on a certain area.

One alternative would be to Google the town/city of interest to find who the local network affiliated TV channels are, and then attempt to access them through the internet.

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#34
In reply to #33

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/05/2015 1:40 PM

No Fox News for me, thanks. I prefer

Local weather is gotten by going the one of the local web sites, Weather Underground, Weather.com or Weather Bug because WB has cameras mounted all around the area. (Most areas they cover also have cameras you can monitor).

Local NOAA is 162.55 KEC 94, which I can get on the scanner.

I also can monitor local fire and PD channels.

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#3

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 4:45 PM

I use the weather app on my iphone, and I have real time radar app...and I have the cable tv weather station app... These together give all weather data including storm tracking, color coded rainfall rate, and accumulation, lightning strikes(both pos and neg counts), wind speed, barometric pressure, forecast, dew point, tidal times, sunset and sunrise, real time traffic speed on every main road, tornado signature, storm cloud height, wind shear, and even temperatures....

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#6
In reply to #3

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 6:12 PM

I use a phone app also. I can find what I want to know right away without having to wait through all the TV weather people yakking about everything.

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#7
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 7:57 PM

I especially like the radar real time tracking so I can see if a thunderstorm is approaching...great here in Florida because we get a lot of storms and it's raining like hello one minute and the sun is shining the next...you can time the storms and pretty much avoid them when shopping and running errands...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noaa-hi-def-radar-pro-storm/id458225159?mt=8

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#8
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 9:24 PM

Yeah, been there. Thunderstorm at 2 PM, set your watch.

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#4

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 4:55 PM
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#5

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 5:56 PM

I ditched cable/satellite a couple years ago - but I can get a bunch of local stations by using an indoor antenna, including one that carries The Weather Channel as a 'standard definition' secondary channel.

When severe weather is coming most of the local stations go into 24/7 'storm' mode.

I also get weather from a talk radio station.

But mostly I use AccuWeather.com

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#9

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/29/2015 9:46 PM

The well weathered news I typically get is from the National Public Radio. Immediate local atmospheric disturbances requiring my swift action will interrupt any Beethoven sonata. Yet typically "flash in the pan" sensationalism news reports do not typically get noted. Once and a while a "tongue in cheek" commentary on plebeian distractions may appear but... (God! I am so full of it here. I need a laxative. )

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#10

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 12:06 AM

Everyone in the Tornado Alley, Mid West, Florida, East cost , North, Mid and South , get terrific weather updates. Out here on the Left coast, not so much. I go to specific West Coast sites, (Weather West, etc.) and get good stuff, but the NWS is so predictable , that it is a joke. I remember driving back to Tulsa, from Springfield, Missouri, during a particularly active weather situation, and turning on the local radio station , and getting all of the tornado cell locations, Doppler forecasts, County danger warnings, wind direction and speed, cumulous heights. etc.. I was impressed, so much, that the warnings turned off reception of regular programing, and locked you into the latest weather updates. Out here, you would only get that if a movie star was spotted out in Hollywood. Go figure..You need to be on NOAA, but their forecasts have been so unreliable, that they are mushy in predictions, and are using 3 or 4 different forecast models from around the World, and blame them all, when necessary, to tell us why they screwed up.

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#11

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 12:33 AM

When i was a trucker, I could get all the weather news I wanted by turning to channel 19 on the cb radio, on top of that, I knew where every Smokey bear was for the next hundred miles.

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#12

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 12:58 AM

Just go to NOAA.gov and enter the zip or city of interest, lots of interesting data to browse through. You can supplement/compare it with the wunderground.com.

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#13

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 7:26 AM

For the most comprehensive presentation of local weather data and refine-able maps I like "Weather Underground"

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#22
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 11:29 PM

That one seems reasonably accurate for here too.

At this time of the year its a bit of a coin toss. Can bucket down without notice and 500m away its sunny and still 39C.

A few more weeks and looking out the window will work normally.

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#23
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/31/2015 7:42 AM

Where I was stationed about 30 miles north of Saigon, I remember being able to set my watch to the 4 PM flood of rain during monsoon. The rest of the day was just hit or miss.

It was always interesting dodging around monsoon rain storms in a helicopter in SE Asia. Didn't need the radar for them. They were very easy to see when you weren't actually in one.

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#38
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/06/2015 3:08 AM

Commercial passenger jets still do it now when they cross The Gulf of Thailand at this time of year.

Gently banking and weaving around the thunder storm heads. Interesting view of the clouds from the side, what with internal lightning and some billowing action next to you and above. Those clouds are high.

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#14

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 7:39 AM

http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/

Here and make my own weather guess. Can't do no worst the the local Meteorologist.

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#24
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 9:08 AM

You must be with a whole bunch of us people who know that weatherpeople are 90% correct, 10% of the time.

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#15

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 8:38 AM

Radio on the way into work. As i live in coastal Texas even the flash flood alerts pop up on my phone. We have had a break in the rain for 2 days now and i must admit i enjoy seeing the sun.

( we saw the Sun and were afraid, decided to sacrifice a virgin but alas there were none to be found)

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#16

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 8:56 AM

NOAA.gov I think most weather stations/forcasters get their data from NOAA.

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#17

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 9:28 AM

I like the TV foul weather coverage. To be able to watch some poor soul in an oversized rain coat, trying to talk into a mike while pieces of house zip by, is amazing.

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#18

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 9:54 AM

The "Local" on Dish until it gets real nasty out there - then it is time for NOAA weather radio. On a group bike ride one evening, when if we had any sense, we wouldn't have ever started a trek up the 3 mile climb, but... what biker rider has any sense? Anyhow, one person had the App on their phone, and, using that, we were quite good at pin pointing exactly when we were going to be in a real world of hurt. Ever try to keep going on a road on a bike in 60 mph gusts and sheets of rain? Somehow we survived, but the App was very effective at telling us when we would get hit.

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#19

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 10:41 AM

We listen to the weather channel on the radio scanner, but it is area wide, not local. Otherwise check AccuWeather.com, and generally look at hour-by-hour for the town I'm in.

But there is another frequency on the scanner that is activated only for severe weather. It is operated by ham radio people. Your area may have something similar. It helps to keep track of "stuff" in the immediate area, but is not a forecast, rather a report on right-now observations.

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#20

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 4:01 PM

NOAH - National Weather Service (Use browser search function for your area)

You can input your specific area(s) of interest, once connected.

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#21
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

05/30/2015 9:40 PM

NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency that officially tracks the weather. Noah supposedly put pairs of animals on a boat. How Noah found and returned pairs of koalas, penguins, turkeys and Galapagos tortoises before any European reportedly circumnavigated the globe is anyones guess.

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#25

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 9:46 AM

I get the weather from my phone, I believe the phone gets its data from Accuweather.

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#26

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 10:24 AM

Look in the sky!

Honestly it does not matter most of the times. Whether it rains or the sun shines I have to go to work!

Same procedure every day. We are so weather un-dependent that it does not matter anymore.

Flooding danger should be sorted out when choosing the house and not when it is going to start raining. Tornadoes can not be avoided (pun intended), but the forecast is probably as bad as for an earthquake.

If the Misses wants to know I look it up in the internet to fake interest. Local weather sites are generally good to tell you what its not gonna be!

A look in the sky always sorts that out!

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#27

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 10:40 AM

I use this guy, but I have to hide the BB gun until its time for him to report.

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#28

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 2:15 PM

Thanks.

I used Accuweather on my phone until the adds outnumbered the news.

Haven't picked a replacement yet. I follow the weather in three different states.

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#32
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/02/2015 3:57 AM

Lucky you! Some people are really concerned with the global weather ahhhh climate. But that's a different discussion . . .

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#35
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/05/2015 11:10 PM

There is always Fox.

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#36
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/05/2015 11:28 PM

In Rupert we trust.Does anybody really understand Citizen Kane or do we only remember the catch phrase.

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#37
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/05/2015 11:42 PM

No Fox.

NPR!

BBC!

Look outside.

Weather app is probably where I'll go.

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#29

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 2:59 PM

I use as many sources as possible, but the first confirmation or sightings are on Skywarn Repeaters. Google Skywarn repeater, (your county, state). These frequencies are open for the public to listen to, and will provide real time reporting by trained weather spotters, and also tornado chasers. Any VHF/UHF scanner can receive these.

Some counties also provide a live feed to http://www.broadcastify.com so you can monitor live from anywhere in the world.

A properly programmed weather radio is as essential as smoke detectors for your home. Be sure to spend the extra money for a radio that will OPERATE on battery power, not just back up your settings if the power goes out. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/Maps/

Local TV stations are a good source of warning information, and many weather sites online are good too. For the online maps, check how often the radar maps are updated. Sometimes 15 minutes is the difference between life and death!

I recently obtained my Amateur Extra license, and only paid for one study book. All 3 tests, same day cost only a total of $14. I bought my first handheld transceiver for $36. I also attended a weather spotting class, 2 hours total, free of cost, which means I am a certified weather spotter. These classes are provided by the National Weather Service, in most areas, and are usually held in early spring. It pays to be able to interpret what you see in the sky and on the horizon first hand.

Again, try to have multiple sources of information, and definitely have a safe place and a plan! Also include a plan when members of your family are not together during a weather emergency, and include a contact person, maybe a relative in another part of the country to contact afterwards.

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#30
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 3:07 PM

Lyn, many local TV stations have live weather alert apps for your phone too. Check the websites for stations in the areas you're interested in.

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#39
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Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/08/2015 3:36 PM

We used to have folks that could look at the clouds, maybe a barometer, and a wet finger in the air, and tell you everything you needed to know about whether the weather is going to make you think better (of it).

They were called farmers. I miss them.

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#31

Re: Where Do You Get Your Weather News?

06/01/2015 5:03 PM

BBC Radio 4, 92.5-95MHz, VHF.

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