Weather Warnings & Truckers

The National Weather Service has recently launched a beta test of a weather notification program called iNWS. This NWS program is a national program and very similar to the USGS mobile warning program. I've been a subscriber to the USGS program for a few months and have found the information useful and interesting. 

NWS Alerts allows users to configure and receive text message alerts and e-mail message alerts when the National Weather Service issues a watch, warning, or advisory that affects them.

Users can configure their alert preferences geographically and by weather phenomena. Weather phenomena categories include:

• Severe Weather
• Winter Weather
• Hydrology
• Fire Weather
• Marine Weather
• Coastal Hazards
• Tropical Weather
• Aviation
• Non-Precipitation
• Civil Emergency 

You can find sign up here. 

Having access to a weather radio is beneficial for people like me who have a fun time in severe weather. I have often wondered how truckers receive their information. Most weather radio utilize SAME technology, allowing users to customize warnings based on their location. However, truckers are always on the move. How do they receive their info? 

Most truckers utilize CB radios with NOAA channels programmed. Others are amateur radio operators. Still others rely on dispatchers, friends and family to keep them informed. Now, they an additional tool. Trucker Weather Watch is an attempt to integrate the transportation industry into the Skywarn Weather Network. It will be interesting to see how the TWW is utilized over time in the Skywarn Nets. 

iCWSU

iCWSU provides a NWS MobileWeb interface to weather data for the aviation community. Available products include:

To get started, point your mobile web browser at:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/zoa/MOBILE/ZOA2.htm

• Hub Forecasts
• Forecast Discussions
• TAFs and METARs
• Storm Summaries
• Convective and Tropical Outlooks
• Weather Forecasts
• Aviation Hazard Graphics
• Radar and Satellite Imagery

Currently, iCWSU is designed for the San Francisco area. Work is being done to expand coverage to the rest of the United States.

iNWS Mobile

iNWS Mobile is aimed at community decision makers, government officials and news media.

iNWS Mobile is an application that will install and run on Java enabled mobile devices. It allows you to browse the following weather data using a map interface:

• National Weather Service watches, warnings, and advisories
• Radar and satellite imagery
• Observations
• Forecasts

iNWS Mobile also allows you to remotely configure your iNWS Alerts profile.

We have developed and tested iNWS Mobile on Blackberry devices, but we do provide an untested non-Blackberry version as well. Please let us know if it works on your phone.

An experimental version of iNWS Mobile (formerly the Mobile Warning Alert Messaging Application) is available for download by pointing your cell phone's web browser at http://inws.wrh.noaa.gov and following the appropriate download link.

NWS MobileWeb

To get started, point your mobile web browser at:
http://mobile.wrh.noaa.gov/

There, you can search for information by zip code or city, state.

The weather information displayed includes

• Current watches, warnings, and advisories
• Current conditions at nearby observation sites
• Radar imagery
• Satellite imagery
• Forecast information