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‘Destructive’ Storms Will Now Trigger Alert on Mobile Phone
UNDATED -- Starting next week, you will get an alert on your cellphone when a destructive storm is in your area.
(The National Weather Service says they've changed the activation date for this system from July 28th to August 2nd.)
The National Weather Service says starting on Wednesday Severe Thunderstorms deemed “destructive” will activate a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on smartphones.
Criteria for a destructive threat is at least 2.75-inch diameter (baseball size) hail and/or 80 mph thunderstorm winds.
Other new terms the National Weather Service will start using include "Considerable" which means hail at least 1.75 inches in diameter and/or 70 mile an hour wind. This will not activate the WEA though.
And the term "base" with one-inch size hail and/or 58 mile an hour wind.
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On average, only 10 percent of all severe thunderstorms reach the destructive category each near, nationwide.
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