Free: Slightly Used Weather Radio

In April I bought my first weather radio. Everybody else had one so I figured I ought to have one too.

There's only three "weather" events that bother me; earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. There's no way to accurately predict an earthquake. With a hurricane we know days in advance that we may be in peril. But tornadoes come up quickly, move rapidly and do a lot of destruction.

I could care less about a thunderstorm warning. Hell, I've lived with them all my life and haven't had one hurt me yet.

I think people who pay attention to "watches" need to rethink their priorities in life. A "watch" simply means there's a cloud in the sky...somewhere. That's it, period. If that offends you, tough.

Yet our National Weather Service has gone out of it's way to infringe upon our lives in every possible way. They issue watches out the ying-yang. If rain is forecast tomorrow, they issue a flood watch today and follow that up with a severe thunderstorm watch. Give me a break!

The local TV weather people have taken the National Weather Service watches and warnings and make a living of trying to scare people about the weather. Heck, it's too sunny, it's too hot, it's too cold, the wind is blowing too hard. It might rain. We might experience lightning. The sky is falling and the world is rapidly coming to an end.

Well, I bought a weather radio that I could program to just warn me about what I wanted to be warned about.....tornadoes in Rankin County. I'm not interested in Smith County, Hinds County, Madison County, Neshoba County, or Scott County.....just Rankin County.

I programmed the radio to do just that; warn me only of tornado warnings issued for Rankin County. I live pretty near the center of the county and would probably have three or four minutes to react if the alarm goes off. That's plenty of time for me. The little radio diligently did it's job. No false alarms. When it sounded, we scrambled for the basement.

All of a sudden I started getting warnings for other counties. I inquired of the National Weather Service as to why. They replied they changed the way they issue warnings. Now they issue warnings for the entire projected path of the weather event.

That sounds logical, I guess. But considering the small amount of information used to issue a warning, it ain't good enough for me. Hell, I don't give a damn about a hook on the radar screen. If you're gonna warn me about a tornado, it better be tossing mobile homes around and uprooting trees.

So, rather than listen to warnings that I could care less about, I'm giving away my radio. It's a good one. It works well. Never had a problem with it. I only have a problem with the "chicken little" attitude of the National Weather Service. Maybe I'm crazy, but today I received four tornado warnings. Only one was headed for Rankin County and they "lost" that one before it ever made it to the county line.

If you want a good weather radio free, including instructions and batteries, just let me know and it's yours.