Have a Great Day
April 3, 1974 – 8:00 a.m.
by Bill Murray

The midpoint of his overnight shift at the National Weather Service Forecast Office on West Oxmoor Road in Birmingham had just passed when Met Tech J.B. Elliott left his desk and walked into the teletype room. It was Elliott’s week to do dreaded midnight shifts. He had come on duty at twelve o’clock and would be there until 8 a.m.

Shifts were an unavoidable part of working for the National Weather Service. After nearly two decades, he was used to it. He would mark his seventeenth anniversary with the Weather Service in just five days. He had worked at the Birmingham office for his entire career, a rarity in the NWS. Most weather people moved around frequently, especially early in their careers.

When he had started, it had been called the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Birmingham office had been in the terminal building at the Airport. The stately old building looked like it would be more in place on the grounds of a southern Country Club than an airport, with graceful columns adorning the front of the building. There were even rocking chairs on the front porch.

His first day on the job had started off with a bang, and today was going to be active like that day in 1957. J.B. had no formal training in weather, no degree in meteorology. But he had loved since his youngest days growing up in Hale County, in Alabama’s Black Belt south of Tuscaloosa. In fact, he had been born less than a month after the worst tornado outbreak in Alabama history had killed over 300 people. The first tornado of that dreadful day had touched down twenty five miles south of his hometown of Havana Junction. His mom always said that his fascination with the weather stemmed from the fact that heard thunder in the womb on that day, March 21, 1932.

J.B. loved listening to the old timers talk about the weather as they played checkers in the town square at Havana Junction. His father was killed in an industrial accident when he was just nine, and it was just his mom and sister after that. This meant getting up early to milk the cows and other chores.

His mother took a job in Tuscaloosa. One day she brought him a special present. A dime store thermometer. He meticulously recorded weather observations each day. He even got up an hour early so that he could tune into radio stations across the country to jot down their weather reports. He would carefully record these on a map of the United States, producing his own personal weather forecasts.
After graduating from Hale County High School in Akron, J.B. moved to Bessemer, near Birmingham, after getting a job with a wholesale grocery company. But he stayed close to the weather by volunteering as a U.S. Weather Bureau Cooperative Observer. In this role, he supplied daily weather reports of temperature and precipitation.

He frequently made the fifteen mile trip to the Birmingham Airport on Saturdays to hang out with the meteorologists there. He applied for a job as a Meteorological Technician, but there was a rule that if there were any veterans on the Federal Register looking for a job, they had priority over a civilian, a policy that J.B. patriotically supported.

Mr. Charles Bradley, the Chief of the Birmingham Weather Bureau Office kept an eye out for an opportunity to get the young man on his staff. He recognized J.B.’s keen interest in the weather, realizing that what he lacked in formal training, he made up for in enthusiasm and dedication.

Then in late March 1957, Mr. Bradley called J.B.’s mother. He had an opening available that J.B. could fill. There was only one problem. J.B. was driving out west with a cousin to visit National Parks. They were making one last stop in Denver before heading into New Mexico, where they would be out of contact for the next two weeks. The once in a lifetime chance at the job of his dreams would evaporate.

Mrs. Elliott called their relatives. The men had not left yet. J.B. was able to see a government-approved doctor for his physical and the job was his. On his way home, newspaper headlines were dominated by a week of active weather, including a major tornado that had hit the city of Dallas on April 2nd.

After returning to Alabama, he reported for work on April 8, 1957 to fill out paperwork on his first day on the job. But there was no time for that. As soon as he walked in the door at the Weather Office that morning, he was pressed into service. Tornadoes were skipping across North Alabama and one was on the ground in the Red Mills community. Two people would be killed in Morgan County. At least four significant tornado struck North Alabama that day, including two tornadoes that modern research would estimate caused F3 damage. Of course, the F-Scale, which estimates tornado wind speeds from damage indicators was less than a year old in 1974, and it was actually the FPP scale, named for its founders, Theodore Fujita and Allen Pearson.

So, J.B. almost didn’t get paid for his first day answering the phones and helping the other weathermen that day. But he didn’t mind. He had been pitching in during his visits to the office for awhile. He didn’t tell his new boss Mr. Bradley, but he probably would have done the job for me. But now he had a career in weather.

Nearly seventeen years later, J.B. was on the precipice of the career-defining day in that weather career that would last until 1989. He stepped into the cacophony of the teletype room at the NWS office in the modern suburban office building on West Oxmoor Road around 4:15 that April 3rd. The building technically was in Homewood, a fact not lost on a certain caller to the office that threatened to have J.B.’s job if he didn’t stop answering the phone with the scripted response “National Weather Service Birmingham”.

J.B. and the other staff on duty early that morning had been waiting on the severe weather outlook from SELS. SELS was the Severe Local Storms Unit at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City. Surprisingly, SELS had only been in existence for twenty five years, not much longer than J.B. had been in the Weather Service.

The teletype room at West Oxmoor Road wasn’t much different than the teletype room that was in the weather office at the old Birmingham Airport terminal on J.B.’s first day. It was a small room, three of its walls lined with hulking, black metal teletype terminals that constantly clacked out from all over the country on rolls of yellow paper.

Two of them, the Service A and Service C teletypes, spit out row after row of SAs, or surface aviation observations. The coded reports told meteorologists a story about the weather at hundreds of airport weather stations around the country, including the cloud heights, visibilities, current weather, temperatures, dewpoints, wind direction and speed, barometric pressure and precipitation.

They were Greek to the layman, but to a meteorologist, they were chock full of important information.

One machine tied the office directly to SELS, network radar sites and other NWS offices. The RAWARC (Radar Report and Warning Coordination) line was a 100 word per minute circuit that transmitted critical watch and warning data as well as coded radar reports from the powerful network radar stations. Forecasters at SELS sent weather watches and other information over this circuit to the local weather offices.

Watches were issued for a wide geographic area, generally several thousand square miles at a time, usually for four to six hours. Watches delineated the area that SELS forecasters believed would be affected by tornadoes or severe thunderstorms. They had already issued a tornado watch the evening before. At 4 a.m. on April 3rd, they were busy issuing two watches for parts of states from Texas to Kentucky. This really was going to be a potent weather system.

The issuance of the watches delayed their daily severe weather forecast for the country, the Severe Weather Outlook. This product was anxiously awaited by forecasters around the National Weather Service and it was displayed each morning on the Today Show. J.B. typed a quick message into the Request/Reply machine. This teletype circuit was connected to a computer in Kansas City which generated a reply with the requested product. Forecasters used it to ask for products like watched to be retransmitted. The Severe Weather Outlook had still not been issued.

The public forecaster had already sent the State Weather Forecast for Alabama. He had composed the forecast and had given it to J.B. to be composed on the teletype. Hunt and peck, but on steroids, was J.B.’s typing technique and the rapid fire method worked amazingly well. There was no backspace on a teletype machine. As you typed, it punched a thin ½ ribbon of paper tape. The nine pins actually punched little holes in the tape that another teletype machine could read. This allowed messages from one machine to be resent on another machine without retyping them. It was a critical component in the communications process that would be considered antiquated in the computer age.

But still, it took time to compose a message, and the state forecast product was due out by 4:45 a.m. J.B. went back to his desk to compose the message for the forecaster on duty. The forecast didn’t include any mention of severe thunderstorms. He had already composed the message when one of the forecasters walked in with a copy of the Severe Weather Outlook, hot off the wire from Kansas City.

ZCZC
ACU6 KMKC

ALSYM A KKCC
ZCZC
MKC AC 030900
VALID 031200Z-041200Z

SEE WW NRS 90 AND 91…

SCTD SVR TSTMS EXPCTD TODAY AND TONIGHT FM NE TEX ACRS ARK SE MO ILL IND OHIO W VA KY TENN WRN VA WRN NC EXTRM NW S C NRN AND CNTRL ALA NRN AND CENTRL MISS WRN HALF LA AND NW GA.

STG LOW PRESSR AREA EXPCTD INTO NE MO BY 00Z WITH CLD FNT SWD THRI ERN ARK AND LA. STG SLY WNDS WITH COOLING ALF EXPCTD TO GIVE SVR TSTMS… WITH ACTVTY SPRDG EWD DURG PD.

GEN TSTMS TO RT OF LN VCT FTW OKC TOP GRI MSP SAW..CONT… MSS UWM …CONT… SSI CTY.

Translated, the message said this:

SCATTERED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EPECTED TODAY AND TONIGHT FROM NORTHEAST TEXAS ACROSS ARKANSAS, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, ILLINOIS, INDIANA, OHIO, WEST VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY, TENNESSEE, WESTERN VIRGINIA, WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA, EXTREME NORTHWEST SOUTH CAROLINA, NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA, NORTHERN AND CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI, NORTHERN HALF LOUISIANA AND NORTHWEST GEORGIA.

STRONG LOW PRESSURE AREA EXPECTED INTO NORTHEAST MISSOURI BY 0000Z WITH COLD FRONT SOUTHWARD THROUGH EASTERN ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA. STRONG SOUTHERLY WINDS WITH COOLING ALOFT EXPECTED TO GIVE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS…WITH ACTIVITY SPREADING EASTWARD DURING THE PERIOD.

It was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, convective outlook they had ever seen. This confirmed what the forecasters at the National Weather Service in Birmingham already thought. It was going to be a really bad day. First, there was work to be done. J.B. set down at his tape punch and hammered out the zone forecasts. The forecasts for the northern and western sections of Alabama mentioned the possibility of locally severe thunderstorms by evening.

Then J.B. started working on his favorite product, the Alabama Weather Summary, a narrative that allowed him a little creative license. He had even been selected to attend a special writing training course in Kansas City. He penned the following message:

ALABAMA READY FOR ANOTHER BOUT WITH THUNDERSTORMS…

THUNDERSTORMS WILL OVERSPREAD ALABAMA FROM THE WEST THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT AND SOME OF THEM COULD BECOME SEVERE. THE SITUATION WILL BE WATCHED CLOSELY TODAY AS THUNDERSTORMS ENTER NORTHWEST ALABAMA THIS AFTERNOON AND SPREAD EAST AND SOUTHEAST OVER THE STATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. THEY WILL BE LOCALLY HEAVY OVER MOST OF THE STATE WITH THE HEAVIEST ONES LIKELY OVER THE NORTH AND CENTRAL COUNTIES.

THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS ARE BLAMED ON THE STRONGEST STORM SYSTEM OF THE SPRING SO FAR. THE DEEP LOW IS CENTERED OVER KANSAS THIS MORNING MOVING NORTHEAST.

J.B. also served as the unofficial weather historian for the state of Alabama, with an uncanny ability to recall dates on significant events. He frequently wrote special statements that recalled historic events, and that morning was no different. He transmitted a special release stating that April 3rd was the anniversary of killer tornadoes, which hit Saugatuck, Michigan and Wichita Falls, Texas in 1964.

A couple of hours later, J.B. took the elevator from the fourth floor and headed into the parking lot. He made the twenty minute drive to his home in the Huffman neighborhood of northeastern Birmingham. He stopped at the Food World grocery store near his house and went in for a few items. The cashier made small talk about the weather. “They say it’s going to get bad today,” she said. J.B. agreed, not elaborating, ready to get home to grab a few winks since he would most likely get called in early before his shift that started at midnight again. “Have a great day, “ she called as he headed back out into the unseasonable heat and humidity. Lady, you’re too late,” he thought to himself.

—-

By the morning of April 4th, the tornado count would be in the hundreds and the death toll would as well. 147 tornadoes occurred in 24 hours. A total of 310 Americans would be killed. The 147 tornadoes was a record that many never thought would be broken. Sort of like Cal Ripken consecutive games streak. But of course, 198 tornadoes occurred last April 27th and 313 people died. The events were similar in some ways. It’s hard to say which was worse. Suffice it to say that both were terrible.

We’ve definitely come a long way in the warning process. But April 27th and May 22nd of last year reminded us that we’re not there yet. A big part of getting people to act is reducing their tendency to be complacent. More targeted warning delivery systems, like the MyWARN severe weather notification app will help. MyWARN filters our the warnings that don’t affect you by notifying you only when you are in the polygon of a warning.

Get MyWARN now from the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store

Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

The top right hand corner on the Android version features the AREA button. This is the equivalent to the Nearby button on the iOS version.  When this button is selected, it will give the user two options: Local or Extended. Local is for the device’s exact location and is  what should be selected most of the time. Extended, when selected will show the user alerts within 50 miles of their location. Like the Nearby button on the Apple version, this is an extended heads up to the approaching severe weather threat. The rest of the dashboard works the same as the iOS version.

When an alert is received, MyWARN will notify the user with a distinct sound and a notification will pop up where all notifications on Android devices show up, in the top left hand corner. When selecting the alert, the app will open and update the Dashboard. Depending on the type of notification the user received, determines how the Dashboard will change. Once a section of the Dashboard lights up, the user is able to select that notification and they are whisked away to the map room on the app. The map room will pinpoint the user’s location within that specific alert. In the map room, notice the tabs across the top of the screen: Map, Details and Take Action. Map is currently where the user is on the app. The user can then select one of the other tabs and receive more information on the threat.

The Details tab provides the text of the alert that the user has been notified too. It can be from the local National Weather Service Office or the Storm Prediction Center. It provide the exact details and threats to expect from the event that will be impacting their exact location. The user is then able to select the Take Action tab. MyWARN will inform the user of what sorts of life-saving precautions or actions need to be taken to ensure the user remains safe during the severe weather threat.

Returning to the Dashboard of MyWARN. One of the most popular features of either version of MyWARN has been the risk feature. The risk is issued five times a day by the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The risk is part of the Day One Convective Outlook which is the threat expected with thunderstorms that develop that day. The SPC issues three risk types: Slight, Moderate and High. Each risk has it’s own criteria depending on the threat, intensity and expanse of the severe weather during that forecast time. A feature currently only available on the the Android version is the ability to see the other risks. In the map room of the risk, if there is another risk, the drop down that says other risks will appear. Users are able to select which risk to look at and see their proximity to it.

Also in each map room there is a Local News Button, just like on the iOS. This is a feature that is continually being implemented across the country. When selecting this button, users will be able to see the Local News affiliate for that television market. If severe weather is ongoing, most stations live stream their severe weather coverage and this can be watched through MyWARN. This feature will provide users with additional information and will be helpful in determining the threat at their location.

As we head back to the Dashboard of MyWARN. There are two other tabs across the top that we need to mention: Settings and More. Under the Settings tab, most everything is the same layout as iOS. Users are able to select which alerts they want to receive and customize MyWARN for their severe weather needs and desires.

Set location and receive test work the same on both versions as well. This allows the users to know MyWARN is working properly and users can test their device at anytime.

News Station is the same as Local News tab discussed earlier. If a Local News station does not show up, that means a local affiliate has not yet been assigned. We continue to work on obtaining affiliates across the country. If your location does not yet have an affiliate, rest assured we are working our hardest to provide one. We would love to hear any suggestions of a local station that you would like to see as an affiliate.

Finally, there is the More tab. Under this tab, you are able to receive additional information on MyWARN. The support area allows users to compose an email and send any questions, concerns, or issues they may have to our support team. When doing this make sure to fill in some text and give us as much detail into the problem, and one of our support technicians will be with you as soon as possible to help resolve any issues.

If you have any additional question or comments, please let us know.

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MyWARN is available in the Google Play Store and as always our very popular iOS version is available for download in the iTunes Store.

Get MyWARN now from the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store.

Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

MyWARN is pleased to announce that the Android version has finally been approved and released by the Google Play Store! You can get it at now for a limited one-time price of $9.99.

Get MyWARN now from the Google Play Market.

As always you can purchase MyWARN on you iOS device.

Check out a sampling of some screenshots below. The design interface is somewhat different from our very popular Apple version, but early feedback shows this layout to be just as functional as the excellent iOS version. The notifications follow the normal Android convention, which is a little more subtle than the iOS version, but the alerts will get your attention with their distinctive sounds.

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Click image to enlarge

On the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1971, a surface low was over Central Texas near Waco. The low had caused severe weather overnight in the Hill Country. A warm front extended east from the low across northern Louisiana, Central Mississippi and into Alabama. South of the boundary, winds were southerly and dewpoints were in the middle 60s at moist air surged northward.

At Jackson, Mississippi, thunderstorms were occurring with a temperature of 68F and a dew point of 66F. At New Orleans, it was 71F over 67F.

In the upper atmosphere, a highly amplified pattern was in place across the U.S. with a huge full latitude trough extending from North Dakota to New Mexico. The trough was progressing eastward. Ahead of it, a diffluent pattern aloft was in place over the Lower Mississippi Valley. This upper divergence would be a key factor in a significant tornado outbreak.

At the National Weather Service in Jackson, forecasters knew it was going to be a bad day. But Sundays in Mississippi were a sleepy time. Forecasts and statements highlighted the threat, but radio stations were broadcasting recorded programs. Most didn’t have a NOAA Weather Wire teletype drop anyway. Some had the Associated Press wire. The news departments in most television stations were not staffed. There was no NOAA Weather Radio.

By early afternoon, sunshine had driven surface temperatures to near 80 degrees across the Mississippi Delta. Instabilities were sky high and the diffluent pattern aloft made for an explosive situation. Just before 3 p.m. CST, an F5 tornado touched down near Delhi, Louisiana. It roared northeast, crossing the Mississippi River into Mississippi. Eleven people died in Louisiana, and another thirty six in Mississippi. The town of Inverness was completely obliterated. Twenty one people died there.

Around 4 p.m., a family of tornadoes started in Issaquena County, Mississippi. It would produce damage along a 160 mile path all the way to north of Oxford. F4 damage was caused along much of the path. The town of Cary was destroyed and eleven people died in the area. A total of fifty eight fatalities were reported with these tornadoes. Thirteen people died in an F4 tornado that cut a 70 mile path of destruction through Warren, Yazoo and Holmes County.

A total of 121 fatalities were reported in Mississippi and Louisiana, making it one of the deadliest tornadoes outbreaks in United States history.

Alabama got lucky in this outbreak, as the storms pushed across the state during the overnight hours, when instability was lower. Additional tornadoes were reported in North Carolina the following day.

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Get MyWARN now from the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store

Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

For the rest of this week, March 3-9, the staff at the MyWARN Weather Center will be better preparing people across the country for severe weather season by offering over a 20% discount on MyWARN. This discount will take the one-time price from $12.99 down to $9.99, allowing people to download MyWARN on their iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, making them better prepared for severe weather whenever and wherever it happens.

During the late winter and early spring months, many states have a severe weather awareness week. In fact, there is even a week that is set aside for the whole country to prepare for the onset of severe weather. This year National Severe Weather Awareness Week is March 3-9, 2013. The National Weather Service Offices across the country, emergency managers and other national and state agencies go through their storm preparedness plans to make sure they are ready for the approaching severe weather season. Each day of that week, there is a new topic for discussion and ways to be prepared in order to survive that type of severe weather. Whether the subject is flooding, tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, lightning or effective sources of severe weather notifications, everything that you need to know will be covered that week.

The newest topic that is being discussed in many areas continues to be effective ways to get severe weather notifications and alerts. Research shows that having multiple sources of severe weather alerts increases your chances of surviving severe weather. MyWARN is one of these sources. Remember, MyWARN uses your devices’ GPS location services and only alerts you when your exact location is threatened. MyWARN cuts down on the perception of too many warnings that are so often associated with legacy warning systems which warn the entire county, such as weather radios and outdoor sirens. When MyWARN alerts you, it is time to take action. MyWARN has been proven to be a life saver already – confirming that it is well worth the cost.

Though this discount doesn’t cover every state’s severe weather awareness week, it does cover the majority of the states that do have severe weather awareness weeks. This discount will last through National Severe Weather Awareness Week as well. It’s a great time to get prepared before the next storm hits. Keep you and your loved ones safe by adding this simple life-saving piece of technology to your severe weather arsenal and have MyWARN as a pivotal part of your severe weather safety and preparedness plan. Make sure you take advantage of this discount. Severe weather impacts every state in the union, allow MyWARN to make sure you are notified and informed when severe weather occurs.

To see when your state’s severe weather awareness week is, check out this link Severe Weather Awareness Weeks.

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Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

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Image c/o Georgia Emergency Management Agency

Get MyWARN now from the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store

Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

This event was a typical severe weather outbreak that occurs every year in the United States. Warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico moved north into the Tennessee Valley providing instability. An intense low pressure system over the Plains provided shear and dynamics, and a strong cold front, providing uplift, began to move east into the warm air.  All these ingredients came together over the region and severe weather developed.

The weather system that was responsible for the outbreak was well forecasted in advance. On February 3, the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had already outlined a large area of the Southeast in a slight risk for severe weather on the 5th. By the 4th, the risk had been upgraded to a moderate risk, for much of the area that would be affected by severe weather.  On the morning of the 5th, the SPC upgraded the moderate risk to high risk over portions of eastern Arkansas, West Tennessee, and North Mississippi as seen in the convective outlook from that morning. MyWARN would have alerted users in the affected region first thing that morning to the threat that would unfold later in the day and into the overnight hours.

The morning started off with a strong squall line from Missouri down into Texas. As the day continued to progress, supercell thunderstorms developed out ahead of the main line. Many of these supercells produced large and violent tornadoes. These tornadoes ravaged numerous communities and impacted some larger metropolitan areas, debunking the myth that tornadoes avoid larger cities. Memphis, Nashville and Jackson, Tennessee all had damage from confirmed tornadoes. One of the hardest and most impacted locations was Jackson, Tennessee, where an EF4 tornado ripped through the campus of Union University. A majority of the buildings on campus sustained significant damage. This is an image of what was left of one of the dorms that was destroyed by the storm. Numerous students were trapped in the debris for several hours, but no one on campus lost their life. If your child was away at college, would you want peace of mind knowing your child would receive important severe weather alerts like MyWARN provides.

Another reason this event was so dangerous, was the worst of the weather impacted areas beginning during rush hour, on a day when most people weren’t going straight home as many headed out to vote. Plus, the outbreak continued into the overnight hours and actually produced early morning tornadoes in Alabama. Despite the advance notice of the threat, 57 individuals lost their lives during this event. Most of the fatalities happened with storms that produced large violent tornadoes that developed after 10 PM.  Overnight remains one of the most dangerous and deadliest times that severe weather can hit. Many people are asleep and more often than not, do not hear the warnings or rely on outdoor warning sirens, which as the name states, are to alert people outdoors. It remains extremely important for persons to have multiple sources of severe weather alerts, especially during night time events. Make MyWARN one of these sources. Most people have cell phones now, with a majority of cell phones being smartphones. You need to invest in a smartphone app that will alert you when you are directly threatened; you need to invest in MyWARN. When MyWARN alerts you, it is time to take action.

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Get MyWARN now from the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store

Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

After the tornado outbreaks of 2011, the interest in effective ways of receiving severe weather alerts skyrocketed. Along with the outbreaks in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, there was also a significant tornado outbreak in the Carolinas, specifically North Carolina, where 28 tornadoes occurred in that state alone, killing 24 people.

As we headed into the 2012 severe weather season, MyWARN was released and rapidly become one of top 10 paid apps on the app store. Being portable proves to be how MyWARN saved Emily and her children’s lives on that fearful summer afternoon.

“As I was driving into what I thought was a typical summer afternoon thunderstorm today with three children my phone began alerting, Tornado Warning for this area. I immediately turned around and drove to my parent’s house right down the road (I had just left from there).”

“Then once a safe place had been reached at my parents, we turned on the news and realized the path of the Tornado went right through where I had been driving only minutes before.”

“My money was well spent!!! Thanks MyWARN!!!!”

The radar map from that day shows that this was just a random summertime afternoon thunderstorm that was able to develop in a higher instability area. With the heating difference between the hot land and the cooler water, this storm produced enough wind shear that the thunderstorm began to rotate and produce a tornado. This was not a major severe weather outbreak, nor a massive and dynamic springtime severe weather system; it was just a typical summertime afternoon thunderstorm that produced a tornado. No watches or risks were issued for the area, so it essentially was a day when no severe weather was expected. These are the days that show the effectiveness of MyWARN. Major severe weather outbreaks are usually well forecasted, but it’s the days when not much attention is given to the weather that need to be watched. Luckily, Emily had MyWARN and it proved to be the life-saving piece of technology it was designed to be.

Emily’s story is not the only one we have heard from our customers. We have numerous emails from customers telling how MyWARN helped them avoid a thunderstorm producing golf ball sized hail, and thus prevented unnecessary damage to their automobile. MyWARN alerted them to the risk of severe weather when they thought all was clear. Countless other incidences have come to us, but Emily’s story proved to us that developing MyWARN was worth it.

Keeping MyWARN simple is our plan, but we are incorporating the ability for users to see a local news affiliate’s severe weather coverage by providing a streaming affiliate in each DMA. Once an affiliate signs on, you will be able to see live, local severe weather coverage through your device. This will prove even more helpful when it comes to letting users know the exact threat to their location. As we continue to improve the MyWARN experience and expand our streaming network, we look forward to hearing more feedback from our customers, and hopefully more stories of how MyWARN has saved even more lives.

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Get MyWARN now from the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store

Special limited time price: $9.99

Special limited time price: $9.99

There are 2 types of location services used by the iPhone
1. Core Location

1. GPS: High level of accuracy. High battery impact.
2.  Wifi: High level of accuracy. High battery impact.

2. Significant Location Update

1. Only updates when device changes cell towers.
2. Much lower level of accuracy. Low battery impact.

Apple has recently made changes in regards to how the location services icon is used on the iPhone.

Many mistakenly believe that the icon displayed at the top of their screen is a GPS icon. That icon is not the GPS icon, but the Location services icon. This means that some app on the device is using location services. Apps specify the desired level of accuracy, and iOS will use the different tools at its disposal accordingly. (GPS, WiFi, GSM…)

Prior to iOS 6, Apple did not show the location services icon when significant location was being used, only when the GPS or Wifi was being used for Core Location services. With iOS 6, the needle icon (circled in yellow in the top right corner of the image below) shows any time any type of location service is being used, including the low battery usage Significant Location Update service.

When MyWARN is running in the FOREGROUND, the app determines which location service is to be used based on whether you are in an active severe weather alert and on the Precision setting you have set in the app:

When MyWARN is in memory, but in the BACKGROUND or the display is asleep, it ONLY uses the Significant Location Change service. This allows the application to be notified whenever the device changes cell towers. At that point the MyWARN application will update the alerts server with your new location. This has very little impact on battery.

This table shows how often MyWARN updates your location in the alerts server when the app is in the FOREGROUND. This is for Alerts in Motion.

So, the important things to know about MyWARN’s battery life is that when the app is in the background, the only time MyWARN uses any battery is when you change cell towers.

When you have MyWARN in memory, the arrow on next to the location services setting under privacy turns purple.  When you have it out of memory, it turns gray.  So, you can go to the settings to see current status for each app.

MyWARN will work just fine in the background, your location just won’t be updated as often. If you want accuracy down to 100 meters while driving, keep the dashboard for MyWARN open and don’t let the display go to sleep. But be aware that it will use more battery while you do this, and you might want to keep it plugged in.

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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Forecaster: Bill Murray

A very serious weather situation is unfolding across the South on this Christmas Day.

A potent upper level disturbance is swinging across Texas this morning. It will cause a powerful surface low to spin up over eastern Texas that will move northeast overnight. The low will pull in lots of warm, moist Gulf air that will become unstable. The low will provide lift, and strong winds rotating around it will result in wind shear values that are off the chart.

The result will be supercell thunderstorms that will develop from eastern Texas across Louisiana, Mississippi and southwestern Alabama later today. These storms will be capable of producing strong, long lived tornadoes, the kind of tornadoes that do lots of damage and can be killers.

Severe weather is possible as far north as Shreveport, Greenville MS, Nashville and Greensboro SC.

Lots of folks will be preoccupied with holiday festivities, but if they have MyWARN, they can be assured of getting critical life saving warnings whether they are at home, at Grandma’s house or on the road in between.

Remember, MyWARN only alerts you if you are in the threat area of the risk, watch or warning. It lets you keep on living the rest of the time.

MyWARN is the perfect tool for keeping you ready wherever you are, but it should just be one thing in your arsenal. And don’t forget to keep an eye to the sky, especially if you are outdoors.

MyWARN for Android will hit the Google Play market soon.

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