I first heard about the Tornado Alert device at the Dayton Hamvention. They had a presentation during one of the forum breakouts. The presenter indicated that their device could monitor electrical changes in the atmosphere and alert when a tornado was near. This sounded really interesting, but not interesting enough to purchase one.

With Spring here and the number of tornadoes increasing in our area over the last decade or so, I decided to get a Tornado Alert. After placing it in the living room window facing Southwest and letting it calibrate, it sat there, except for when the cats knocked it off the window sill. Note: It needs to calibrate when the weather is good, not in the middle of a weather event.

Last night a storm front moved through the area. At some point, the Tornado Alert went off and woke me. It was alarming due to strong thunderstorms. A minute or two later, the National Weather Service Radio went off stating there was a thunderstorm warning for the area. Looking at the radar and after silencing the alert siren, after determining the worst was to our South, back to bed we went. Not long after getting back in bed, the alarm went off again. This time it was a tornado alert! Again, a minute or two later, the National Weather Service radio went off stating a Tornado warning. We hovered around an internal closet and watched the radar. The tornado activity was to our South and was moving in a direction away from us. After the worst of the storm moved on, we went back to bed. Others in the area were not not so lucky as many lost their homes.

When I first heard about the Tornado Alert, I thought that maybe it was some kind of silicon snake oil. After last night, it proved that it was the real deal. I hope that we don’t have to go through that again, but if we do, the Tornado Alert will be one of the tools in the weather monitoring tool chest. An extra minute or two can make a huge difference.