GREENSBORO, N.C. — Do you have emergency alerts turned on for your cell phone? If not, you may want to now, thanks to a new feature being introduced by the National Weather Service and a new way of classifying and issuing severe thunderstorm warnings.
Up until now, severe thunderstorms have fallen into a "one size fits all" kind of approach for warnings, but that is changing, starting now. The National Weather Service will have impact-based warnings to reflect the intensity of storms and the damage they may cause. You'll now be able to get alerts if there is a tornado warning or a really intense severe thunderstorm.
In order for a storm to be classified severe, it has to meet at least one of the following criteria:
- 58 mph winds or higher
- 1" hail or larger
- Producing a Tornado
The new severe storm tags will come with a little more detail based on wind speeds and hail sizes, reflecting the storm's intensity. There will still be the baseline severe thunderstorm warnings that get issued but if a storm intensifies to a certain point, it will get one of these new "considerable" or "destructive" tags.
If a storm intensifies enough to have at least 70 mph winds or golf ball size hail then it will get a "considerable" tag on it.
If a storm reaches winds of at least 80 mph or baseball size hail, it will be considered a "destructive" severe storm. If a storm reaches this level of intensity then a Wireless Emergency Alert or push notification will be sent out on all smartphones in the area where the storm could impact.
This is what the alert would look like if it came up on your phone:
It's easy to set up your phone so that you can receive these warnings. Just go into the settings menu on your smartphone > notifications, and then make sure your Emergency Alerts are turned on.
The National Weather Service will start implementing these changes immediately. As always, any time that severe weather threatens the Piedmont-Triad, the News 2 Weather Team will be on top of it, passing along warnings and information to keep you safe on-air and online.
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