KinwarnTornado warnings for a parent's home in another state
Your phone's Wireless Emergency Alerts only cover the area where your phone is, so they won't tell you about a warning at your parent's home in another state. Set up something that watches their location: the free FEMA app sends National Weather Service alerts for up to five locations, many counties let you sign up for their own alerts, and some weather apps watch a saved address. Give your parent their own way to get warnings too, and agree on who calls whom.
If you live in Chicago and your father lives in Tulsa, a tornado warning for his street will not reach your phone on its own. Here is why, and what you can set up instead, from free to paid.
Why your phone stays quiet
Wireless Emergency Alerts are the emergency messages that pop up on cell phones. They are broadcast from cell towers to phones in the warned area. The system does not know who you are or where your family lives, so you get alerts for the place your phone is, not for a parent’s home somewhere else.
Phone alerts also don’t carry every weather warning. Every tornado warning is sent, but only the most dangerous severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings are. See how to get tornado warnings for the full list.
Free: add their location in the FEMA app
The FEMA app is free. It can send real-time weather alerts from the National Weather Service for up to five locations anywhere in the U.S. Add your parent’s location next to your own, and turn on alerts for the warning types you care about.
Free: sign up for their county’s alerts
Many counties and cities run their own emergency alert sign-up by phone call, text or email, and you don’t have to live there to join. Look on the county’s emergency management website, or ask local officials, as Ready.gov suggests. If you can register an address, register your parent’s address with your own phone number.
An app that watches the address
Some weather apps let you save several places and alert you when a warning covers any of them. Before you rely on one, check three things:
- Does it follow the warning’s outline or the whole county? National Weather Service warnings cover an outlined area, often much smaller than a county. An app that alerts for the whole county will wake you for storms nowhere near the house.
- Will it sound when your phone is on silent? Many apps can’t. Look for a setting that lets alerts through silent mode or Do Not Disturb.
- How many places are free? Count your home, your parents’ home and anyone else you look after.
Kinwarn watches the exact addresses you add and alerts you when a warning’s outline covers one. Alerts for 2 places are free. Kinwarn Pro can also call your parent’s phone, including a landline, for the most dangerous warnings.
Give your parent their own warning
Your alert helps most when they also hear one at home.
- Check their phone. Make sure it supports emergency alerts and that alerts are turned on in the notification settings.
- Put a NOAA Weather Radio in the home. A receiver with a tone alert, set to their county, sounds an alarm when a warning is issued, even at night. Keep batteries in it in case the power goes out.
- Pick the shelter spot together. See where to shelter during a tornado.
Agree on who calls whom
Decide now what happens when a warning covers their home: who calls, who tries next if nobody answers, and which neighbor can knock on the door. Write it down with phone numbers. Ready.gov’s planning steps and our family storm plan walk through it.