#NOAA / #NWS has been sending alerts for severe #t-storms with heavy rainfall and flash flooding most of today, covering much of #San_Bernardino County and parts of #Riverside County in !SoCal.

A couple of those alerts covered areas near me. My personal phone got alerted for #flash_floods, but my work phone (which was also with me) did not. This illustrates why people should get NOAA weather alert radios for their homes and other places where they spend a lot of time. (NOTE: Your $EMPLOYER may not allow you to set one up at the workplace.)

The alerts transmitted by mobile carriers are not dependable. In some areas, one carrier will have service and another will not. In other areas, multiple carriers may have service, but only one will alert. In still other areas, multiple carriers will transmit alerts, but there may be a few minutes between carriers.

They used to cost around $40 at Walmart. You have to find out the NOAA alert code for your county and enter it into the radio. Then, when it picks up the code, it will emit a loud beeping noise, then switch on the audio of the nearest NOAA weather radio station ... which should be describing the alert details.

In some places, the county-level alerts are not very helpful. San Bernardino County is one of those places, because the county is the largest in the lower 48 states, and covers an area from Montclair to Needles (multiple hours of driving apart from each other). But in most of the rest of the country, they are very helpful. For example, Wayne County, #MI (Detroit area) is relatively compact, so a weather alert there is likely relevant.