ALERT NEWSLETTER – March 2009 Vol. 2 No. 9 http://www.alert-alabama.org Hi everyone, With the arrival of March we enter into the peak of the spring tornado season. Are you prepared? And, I’m not talking callouts, radios, antennas or chat rooms. I’m talking keeping you and your families alive and intact during and after the storms. For this should be your number one priority. Remember you can’t respond to callouts to any emergency team if you are dead or dying or desperately trying to dig your family out of the rubble that was a few moments ago your home. For this reason everyone should have a disaster plan. Both at home, at work & in between. Every home should have a safe place of refuge. You have heard “seek shelter in an interior room on the lowest floor.” And, this is very good advice. Shelters can run the gamut of an interior closet, a special room in the basement that can quickly be run to, or a fully equipped fallout shelter. Which considering the multiple threats that the 21 century offers us, isn’t a bad idea to have. Not at all. </stro Continue reading →

ALERT NEWSLETTER – February 2009 Vol. 2 No. 8http://www.alert-alabama.org Hi Everyone, Next month begins our spring severe weather season. Now is the time to take the time to review your emergency preparedness plans and for brushing up on your skills – including both communications & stormspotting. Now is the time to prepare, don’t wait until the sirens sound. It may be too late then. In preparing, you should ask yourselves these questions: Is my family shelter (and everyone should have one) ready? Is my equipment ready? Antennae up & radios working? Batteries charged? Are my communications channels open? Including RF, Internet & telephone resources. Can I receive weather bulletins & the ALERT callouts that will come? And, a reminder to all ALERT members, that all responses to the NWS are done on a callout basis. We want and welcome Operational members to take active roles in callouts. But, always coordinate with NWS liaison issuing the callout – Nathan or Russell before responding to the NWS. This a Continue reading →

ALERT NEWSLETTER – January 2009 Vol. 2 No. 7 Hi Everyone, I hope you all had a good Christmas & that 2009 treats you well. The first thing I’ll comment on is the Spotterchat. Activity during the last storms has been good & interactive, with, people chatting & good reports coming in. This I’m glad to see. As you probably know, the prototype IEMChat will be terminated on February 3 and replaced by the new NWSChat. So, if you are an Operational Member, please be sure to sign up for a NWSChat account by that date. See https://nwschat.weather.gov On another note, if you are a user of radar provided by the College of Dupage, they have had serious problems with their server, which they are close to resolving. It you haven’t tried the COD radar, once they get it fixed, you should. They provide displays not available on the NWS website. Multiple radar angles, storm relative velocity, storm radial velocity, 1 hour precip, storm total precip, vertical integrated liquid, storm echo tops and more. And, when the NWS site is slow or down due to overload during storms, COD will still be up and will be faster than the NWS site. Continue reading →

Hello everyone. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving & that you had no ill effects from being stuffed like the turkey you ate. Christmas is just around the corner. And, if you want to buy your President ham gear or weather instruments, I will be gracious and accept. Soon a New Year will be upon us & with this New Year will be some changes. One change, which has already taken place, is Jody Aaron taking over for Darone Jones at the NWS. We aggravated Darone so much that he went running and screaming to the hills under the pretense of being promoted to the NWS Western Regional Headquarters. Now we can “give the treatment” to Jody. Congratulations to Darone. And, Jody – get ready. Skywarn Recognition Day is Saturday December 6th and ALERT still needs volunteers to work the station. So far we have been under whelmed with volunteers. This Continue reading →