Starting July 28, the National Weather Service will add “damage threat” tags to Severe Thunderstorm warnings, similar to tags currently used on our Tornado and Flash Flood Warnings. Of note is that if a NWS office attaches a “Destructive” tag onto the Severe Thunderstorm Warning, then this tag will automatically activate a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on smartphones within the warned area.
A “Destructive” tag will be used with:
hail threats that are 2.75 inches or larger (baseball size hail or larger)
and/or wind threats of 80 mph or higher.
We experienced several of these high end severe storms this spring in our area. Other lower end severe storms that carry a “base” or “Considerable” tag will NOT activate a WEA. While all severe storms pose a significant threat to life and property, this activation of WEA, for the most severe of storms, will add an extra amount of awareness to citizens that a destructive storm will be affecting their area and urgent action is needed.
Lastly, make sure you have NOT turned off your phone notifications for these Government Alerts. Smart phones have the alerts turned on by default, but many phone owners turn them off. This setting is usually found in the notification settings menu.
New “Destructive” Severe Thunderstorm warning category to trigger alerts on mobile phones
