weatherUSA

Sometimes we find a site and it’s worth mentioning in our newsletters because it’s funny, useful, or provides a free service we think may be of interest to our readers. Since most of you have cell phones and since it’s summertime here in the good, old U.S. of A, you never know when a summer thunderstorm is going to turn rabid and turn its ferocity upon your locality. We’re not always sitting in front of our TVs or computers, but those of us with cell phones are rarely without them.

We’ve found a free service that will send you a text message when threatening weather is forecast for your locality. If you’re a yachtsman (yachtswoman?) like EB, and you’re adrift on Lake Michigan on your 55′ sloop “Thundercloud” – you need to know when a storm is coming so you can secure the champagne bottles and stow away the beer.

weatherUSA is just such a service. It’s free service is limited to one device (Do you have 2 cell phones? If so, why?) and one email address. You can get alerts sent to you cell as a text message or as an email (if you have a fancy smartphone, like EB – not a dumbphone like TC).

We’re rambling again. Let’s bring in the site’s own Mr. Weather to give you a little better idea of what this site can do for you (if you live in the USA):

“weatherUSA provides a free, real-time weather alert service which sends out weather warnings, watches, and hurricane information as soon as they are issued by federal agencies (such as the National Weather Service). Alerts are sent to subscribers in the warned areas via text messages (SMS) and e-mail. Premium users can also receive alerts via voice (phone) call.

You can select warnings to receive based on county or state for local weather warnings; national advisories such as tropical storm and hurricane advisories are also available. For text messaging, you can even select a “quiet time” when you do not want to receive notifications. However, for urgent warnings such as tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings, we recommend setting these with 24-hour notification so that you can be alerted in the middle of the night….”

If you’d like weather alerts sent to your cell phone so you know when to duck and take cover, this site is for you. If you like spontaneous terror, you probably won’t care much for this site. You can get more information and/or sign up for your free account by visiting this week’s site of the week – weatherUSA.

Will you take me out on the lake this weekend, EB? Please? I’ll bring my own beer!