Some of you may recall that a tornado touched down in downtown Atlanta this past March.  The City of Atlanta does not have weather activated warning sirens, and so the tornado came as a big surprise to most everyone.  There were a lot of people downtown at the time, with many attending some sporting events, but fortunately most everyone was inside and so there were very few casualties (only one person was found some days later under some rubble).

Retrieving weather forecasts to my hw6925

Last night some more severe weather, with the threat of tornados, swept through Georgia.  In the community where I live (which is about 35 miles away from Atlanta), the tornado sirens went off a couple of times early this morning.  At 4:30 am, a tornado had been sighted only a few miles from my home.  Luckily, the tornado steered clear of my neighborhood, but last night's excitement got me searching for a quick weather update solution for my Pocket PC and I found a really great free application called Weather Watcher Mobile.

Weather Watcher Mobile is available for Pocket PCs and Smartphones.  Weather Watcher Mobile receives its information from The Weather Channel  and is able to deliver weather announcements for over 77,000 cities worldwide to a Pocket PC or Smartphone through a data connection (wifi or GPRS/Edge).

Weather Watcher Mobile gives you several different views to the weather forecast:  Now, Hourly, Daily, or Detail:

The software also includes a Map option which can be set up to display either a satellite or radar view of your location, but this option is only available for the United States and may not be available for all locations.  You can also set an option to receive specific weather Alerts you'd like to view on your Pocket PC or Smartphone.

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I really like the Weather Watcher Mobile application and plan to keep it installed on my hw6925.  However, these updates are contingent on my conscious retrieval of updates. To keep the weather forecast up-to-date, I must initiate a data connection and retrieve the information. 

Receiving severe weather alerts directly to my hw6925

Another useful weather related mobile service I tracked down last night was a free text messaging service that can be used to send severe weather alerts directly and automatically to my mobile phone as soon as weather alerts are issued.  In my search, I found several services that charge a monthly or annual subscription fee, but then I found the free email alert service offered by Weather Underground (aka wunderground.com).

Weather Underground offers a weather email option and you can sign up to receive weather alerts for up to 10 different locations via email sent to up to three email addresses.  Because I want weather alerts sent directly to my cellphone, I entered my cellphone's full email address (xxxxxxxxxx@cingularme.com) when I signed up for this option.

I initially signed up for all alerts, but found that these alerts come in multiple text messages that are updated frequently, so I was receiving text messages all night long. 

This morning, I modified these settings to only include Tornado Warnings and Thunderstorm Warnings, or else I'd be receiving text message every time the wind changes direction, burning through my monthly allotment of text messages in no time at all.

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