Severe weather awareness and alerts when camping

[DaveAndBecky_NorthernMI]

After the tragic tornados in Kentucky I began wondering what the Oliver community does while camping to stay alerted to potentially hazardous weather. I see many NOAA radios out there but was curious about what you all use. 

[John E Davies]

I have a receiver and it just did not work for my needs. I especially wanted to be able to receive tsunami push warnings on the NW ocean beaches, but 75% of the time it would not even pick up the regular weather broadcasts. Too many mountains between me and the stations…. Neither does it work in most of the more isolated inland areas in the PNW. I bought a plug-in 25 foot wire antenna for it, that can be hung out a window or draped over a tree limb to “theoretically” get better reception. I keep the radio around at home for an Armageddon situation, but that is all. 

If you want reliable weather info when your cell phone is dead, get a two-way satellite communicator like an inReach and pay for the optional detailed reports as you request them. They will not “push” alerts, but if the sky turns nasty you can download the latest info. I have one of these devices and HIGHLY recommend it, but don’t get more than the standard weather info, one of them counts as one message on my plan. Premium reports are $1.00 each. The report does include icons for dangerous winds:

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions on Weather for inReach

But it still won’t warn you of a tsunami wave headed toward your beach picnic, for that you will need to stay within earshot of the sirens scattered along the coast, you need to be within a mile to hear one 😳And close enough to high ground to be able to run there in less than twenty minutes. I like visiting that coast, but won’t camp at water level and won’t beachcomb unless there is high ground very close by.

For when your phone works, the FEMA app will push all kinds of emergency alerts. Too many IMHO, so you tend to ignore them…! Plus it is no good at all if you are moving around often, aka camping, because it doesn’t know your actual position, only the saved locations.

John Davies

Spokane WA

[Steph and Dud B]

We have a simple weather radio in our fifth wheel. Have found it to be effective in most areas we camp. It does have an old-fashioned extendable antenna, like the old TV "rabbit ears," that improves reception.  It squawks when there's an alert and we push a button to hear what the alert is. It is NOT one of the fancy programmable ones where you can select only the single county where you want the alert. We found those are too cumbersome for campers on the move (although that is what we have at our house). Will have to figure out where to put the radio in our new Ollie...

[topgun2]

Four prong approach:

1 - My Oliver Furrion radio has weather band but no automatic alert for severe weather

2 - A stand alone weather band radio (THIS ONE) that also has shortwave radio and automatic alert

3 - A satellite communicator (THIS ONE) that has weather but no automatic alert

4 - Garmin 890 has a weather function but it must be interfaced with a cell phone and I don't believe that it has an alert function.

Bill

Edited December 16, 2021 by topgun2
added 4th approach

[VBistro]

I have a Garmin InReach device (I spend a lot of time riding gravel roads in the absolute middle of nowhere) and never thought to use it for detailed weather when things start to look crazy.  I've mostly used it to decide how many layers I would need for that day's ride.  LOL.  Thanks for the tip.  I'll make sure the device goes with us on every trip now.

mb

[dewdev]

11 hours ago, topgun2 said:

Four prong approach:

1 - My Oliver Furrion radio has weather band but no automatic alert for severe weather

 

Bill

Bill:

I also have the Furrion radio. I was not aware it has a weather band. How do you access it?

Thanks

[topgun2]

dewdev - 

Never trust the memory of an old guy first thing in the morning (or any other time for that matter)! 😉

Since my Ollie is in storage at the moment I'm only giving you what I remember off the top of my hat - using the button that allows you to switch from AM to FM you can simply keep pressing it until the WB shows up (only four or so presses gets you there). Once there you can scroll through 5 or 6 "bands" to get the clearest one or the one closest to your present location.

Bill

[dewdev]

I checked and unfortunately my Furron model DV3300 radio does not appear to have a weather channel capability.

I check the owner's manual and there was no mention of that capability.

If someone knows differently, please let me know. 

[jdmmtx]

I was going to order a weather radio for our Ollie before Christmas but after reading about the various Midland models, wasn't sure how easy it would be to program the current location every time you are in a new place. I ended up not ordering because I wasn't convinced it was what we need and am still looking. There are some good phone apps that will do push notifications in the event of severe weather but without always having coverage at sites that isn't a complete solution either.