Your looking at a message that could pop up on your phone very soon. Wireless carriers and the government are working together to launch weather text alerts to your cellphone.
According to USA Today and other various sources, the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) should begin late this month in certain regions. It's hard to say if we'll see it immediately, but it looks as though it will be arriving sooner than later.
This is not a new initiative available to the public. FOX 16 provides the very same service if you sign up on our website. What sets this text alert apart is that it will be coming directly from the National Weather Service, not from our station.
If you're wondering, the alerts like the one shown above, will only be issued for life-threatening events such as tornadoes, flash floods, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, dust storms, extreme winds, blizzards and ice storms. No watches or advisories will be sent to your phone.
The National Weather Service say the WEA system will send out warnings based on location. Thus, if you're traveling you'll receive an alert only for that region. There will be no charge for these special texts and no sign up forms.
Several cell phone carriers are on board with the idea such as AT&T, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless.
And it appears there will be more innovation in the coming years from the NWS. A new web design is in the works for their homepage (http://preview.weather.gov) and more involvement with social networks. Time will tell how these pieces all come together in the future.
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