When Dallas Raines or the Times‘ weather page reports that it was 92 degrees in Los Angeles yesterday, their data likely come from one source: the National Weather Service’s downtown Los Angeles station on the University of Southern California (USC) campus.
Last month, The Weather Channel proclaimed that it would start naming winter storms in the manner of tropical storms and hurricanes in hopes that people would pay more attention to them. The National Weather Service—the official government agency in charge of all of this—just laid the smack down on that plan. More »
While it’s a little later than expected, the free SMS emergency notification system has now gone live. Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages will be delivered to cell towers in affected areas, which will then broadcast them to all compatible devices in their range. While the system is looking to cover over 97 percent of the country, it’s being gradually rolled out across carriers. Sprint and Verizon are both apparently ready for action and while we haven’t heard about the status of T-Mobile or AT&T, the National Weather Service has stated that hundreds of smaller carriers haven’t yet enabled the broadcasts. However, not all phones — especially the more elderly bricks still in circulation — will work with the system. To check whether your weighty cellular still passes muster, hit up the compatible device list at the CTIA link below.
FEMA and National Weather Service launch Wireless Emergency Alert System originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 22:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
