NOAA Weather Radios: An essential way to get every type of weather alert

In severe and dangerous weather, access to have weather alerts is essential to staying safe. There are so many ways that we can get weather alerts directly to us. Tornado sirens, the emergency alert service on our phone, and of course, our favorite news channels and apps.

But, sometimes some of those services don't always alert us to every alert when we need to know them. An exception to that, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) weather radios.

NOAA weather radios are a constant 24/7 output of weather alerts, watches, and warnings. While the emergency alert service will put out notifications for local tornado warnings, the radios expand to a lot more.

Weather radios also send out alerts for tornado warnings and watches. But, they also cover severe thunderstorm alerts, flood and flash flood alerts, and even winter weather alerts. On top of that, some weather radios are also capable of carrying other messages from the emergency alert service.

These radios are able to stand on their own when certain systems fail. During power outages, radios are able to continue operating, so long as you keep spare batteries around to keep them powered.

They are also very mobile as well. Heading to your safe space during a storm? The radio can come with you. Traveling and unsure of the weather conditions? Weather radios will tap into the local radio transmitter and alert you to what's happening in the vicinity.

If you don't have one, or would like to upgrade to a more recent model, you can find these radios at your local electronics or hardware store. Some online outlets also sell NOAA weather radios.

Of course during severe weather season, it is always important to have multiple ways of getting warnings. You can download the NBC4 weather app to your phone and get alerts as soon as they happen. Search "NBC4 wx" in your phones app store!