Midland's All Hazards Weather Alert Radio!

Out of respect for the sort of severe storms my home in southwest Missouri is subject to, I decided to purchase a weather alert radio from Midland Radio Corporation over the internet. The model I selected was the WR300. It sells for about $44 at the time of this post and had some features I though might prove useful.

In addition to being a weather radio that receives the 24/7 broadcasts from the National Weather Service, the WR300 also is a radio alarm clock that can wake you with nice gentle music from the station of your choice or by a blast from a siren. Take your pick!

Yet, what I found to be really cool about this unit was the fact that it employs S.A.M.E or Specific Area Message Encoding, which enables the user to target only the county they reside in (or up to 23 adjacent counties) to receive notifications of impending severe weather. This is a great feature in that it allows one to filter out warnings when storms may not even be near where you live. I was surprised to find out that not only will it notify a person of the threats of winter storms or tornadoes, but also of over 60 other hazards including dust storms, floods, law enforcement and even biological hazards to name a few!

With it's ability to use battery backup, you can take this radio with you wherever you travel. So, it makes a great companion for anyone that travels for a living! The folks at Midland thought of everything with this product. It even supports and optional external strobe light to be used in loud environments or in homes with hearing impaired people present.

You definitely get a lot of bang for the buck with this unit and I would recommend it to anyone out there who knows that in the event of a severe weather outbreak, that seconds count!

First week of April 2013 Wx Summary

After suffering through a much colder than normal (-4°F) month of March, it was with no little relief that April arrived right on time. Interestingly, the first seven days were more in line with the trend established in March than what one would expect from it being April! The average temperature for the entire month of April is 57°F (West Plains MO data) with the Forsyth area registering 3 degrees below that level at 50.1°F. The average high temperature was 63°F and the low was 38°F when the normal for this month would be somewhere around 69°F and 41°F. So, we have some room to make up.

Precipitation likewise has been lagging behind with the historical average for the first week at .92” (4.33 for the month). We’ve had just .33 inches in that first week and so also need to catch up. (Something that could well happen in week two).