The importance of Weather Alert Radios or “All Hazard/Weather Alert” radios is becoming more important today with the increase of severe weather and hazardous conditions around the country.

There is a perception that outdoor sirens provide warning for approaching severe weather but that is incorrect assumption. Today outdoors sirens are getting better; most today are backed up by a battery (Uninterrupted Power Supply-UPS) but there are some outdoor sirens in need of repair or have no UPS attached. If the power were to fail you would hear nothing on the approaching severe weather. The real word here is the term “Outdoor” that we need to understand. The “Outdoor” sirens are for outdoor use, meaning if you are outside these sirens will help notify you of severe weather approaching, and they are NOT made for indoor warnings.

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Most of the time when you hear an outdoor siren that tells you one thing, take cover! The severe weather is approaching or upon you and you should take cover immediately. Read more »

News Stories
Storms leave 200 injured in Virginia, officials say (CNN)
Tornado Photos From Hampton Roads (WKTR-TV)
Storm Shots In Pungo (WKTR-TV)
Tornado Damage - Photos Sent In By Viewers (WKTR-TV)
Storm And Tornado Damage Hits Hampton Roads (WKTR-TV)
One Dead, Hundreds Injured in Possible Tornadoes (Washington Post)
Hundreds Injured in Virginia Storms (Fox News)
Severe Weather Photos (WAVY-TV)

8:30 PM EDT
National Weather Service in Wakefield has confirmed a EF-1 Tornado touched down 3 miles Southeast of Lawrenceville, VA.

8:00 PM EDT
Lots of damage reports coming in from Virginia and the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area.

0423 PM     TORNADO          2 NW NORFOLK NAS        36.96N 76.33W
04/28/2008                   CITY OF NORFOLK    VA   EMERGENCY MNGR

            POTENTIAL TORNADIC DAMAGE TO A BUILDING AND SEVERAL CARS
            DAMAGED ON NORFOLK NAVAL BASE. TREES DOWN.

0305 PM     TORNADO          2 SE LAWRENCEVILLE      36.74N 77.83W
04/28/2008                   BRUNSWICK          VA   EMERGENCY MNGR

            TORNADO TOUCHDOWN WITH SEVERAL TREES DOWN AND SNAPPED OFF
            ALONG BELFIELD ROAD... WESTERN MILL ROAD AND MILAS DRIVE.

0421 PM     TORNADO          DRIVER                  36.82N 76.50W
04/28/2008                   CITY OF SUFFOLK    VA   TRAINED SPOTTER

            TORNADO ON THE GROUND REPORTED IN DRIVER MOVING NORTHEAST
            TOWARDS HAMPTON ROADS AND DOWNTOWN NORFOLK.

5:45 PM EDT
Channel 3 is reporting a severe storm going thru Virginia Beach, VA now and they have lost their live feed from there. They are saying to take cover if you are in the area of Virginia Beach, VA.

5:38 PM EDT
From reports on Channel 3, many homes are damaged, Incident Command has been setup in Suffolk, VA. Pictures indicate a large wedge tornado that caused the damage. Stay tuned to Channel 3 for additional coverage of the storm that went through Suffolk, VA.

Additional TV Coverage From Channel 3

5:24 PM EDT
A tornado was reported on the ground by a county official in Hyde County, NC. Tornado was reported between Leechville and Sladeville, NC.

5:15 PM EDT
Another tornado warning issued for Beaufort County, NC with radar indicated rotation.

4:50 PM EDT
Confirmed reports of tornadoes on the ground from Norfolk Channel 3. Read more »

7:00 PM CDT
A new Tornado Warning has been issued for Broward County in southern Florida.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MIAMI HAS ISSUED A
* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
WEST CENTRAL BROWARD COUNTY IN SOUTH FLORIDA.
* UNTIL 815 PM EDT
* AT 748 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO NEAR WEST BROWARD REC. AREA ON ALLIGATOR ALLEY...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 11 MPH.

THIS STORM IS ALSO CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PENNY SIZE HAIL...AND
DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.
* THE TORNADO WILL BE NEAR...
WEST BROWARD REC. AREA ON ALLIGATOR ALLEY...

5:49 PM CDT
A Tornado Warning has been issued for southern Florida, west of Boca Raton.

With the recent layoffs at CBS stations, another one was let go today at WCCO TV. Paul Douglas, WCCO's longtime weatherman, was released today from the station as part of a nationwide CBS purge, a wide-ranging and dramatic response to dwindling ad revenue and viewership.

Full information at http://www.startribune.com/business/17301919.html

Saturday - 3/9/08

11:00am
Today's sessions were very good and covered many things. The one that stood out for me was "Special Needs in a Disaster" by Cindy Daniel, National Disability Director for Department of Homeland Security and FEMA. She talked about the special needs of disabled people during a disaster and all the things you have to think about to take care of them in a crisis.

Not everyone can get in a car and evacuate the area and some require special transportation or medical needs. Also the need to accommodate animals, both as pets and assisted living animals such as seeing eye dogs. The big question is what to do with them during a disaster. You can't just leave them because they are needed by the disabled person. A real question and problem to think about.

I sat thru a presentation by Dr. Chuck Doswell on Storm Chasers: The Good, The Stupid, and the Irresponsible. As usual Chuck was wild to listen to. He did say MOST chasers are responsible but unfortunately there are irresponsible chasers out there making the good ones look bad. In Doswell's opinion, the Storm Chasers shows on TV now showing are not doing the community any good.

Today's sessions were held at the National Weather Center. This place is amazing place and well made to handle a direct hit from a tornado. Inside the center is this really cool globe. There are four projectors around the globe and they project onto this 360 degree globe. A computer takes all the four images and stitches them together so they can be viewed on a 360 degree globe hanging from the ceiling. Virtual Globe Video
Read more »

Hi everybody! This is my 1st post to my blog as a member of the Severe Studios Chase Team. It's good to be here and I look forward to a great chase season, of course I hope it will be a safe one with no injuries or property damage.

I will again be attending this year's National Severe Weather Workshop in Norman, Oklahoma on March 6-8, 2008. This is a really great conference with all the best forecasters from the Storm Prediction Center, National Weather Service meteorologists and forecasters along with Emergency Management people and many media personal from TV stations around the country. Its a great time to meet and talk with them on current predictions for severe weather, past severe weather events, and to learn about new weather prediction technologies such as Phased Array Radar. Read more »