KinwarnKinwarn Pro
A phone call when a tornado warning covers Mom’s home
Kinwarn Pro calls your family when a tornado warning covers their home, even on a landline. They press 1 and you see they got it. If they miss two calls, Kinwarn calls you so you can try to reach them.
How a call works
- 3:02 AM. The National Weather Service issues a tornado warning that covers your mother’s address.
- Kinwarn calls her right away. A recorded voice says what the warning is, where, and until when, then: “Press 1 if you got this warning.”
- She presses 1. Your app shows “Mom got it” with the time. No more calls.
- If she doesn’t press 1, Kinwarn calls again 90 seconds later.
- If she misses both calls, Kinwarn calls you: Mom did not answer two calls about a tornado warning at her home.
You get a notification and an email for the same warning. If the warning is at your own home, Kinwarn calls you one minute after the notification unless you already tapped “Got it”.
Kinwarn only calls when minutes matter
A call that wakes people for a storm the TV warned about yesterday teaches them to ignore the next one. So Kinwarn calls only for warnings where people may need to act within minutes, often while asleep: tornado warnings, destructive severe thunderstorm warnings, extreme wind warnings, flash flood emergencies, tsunami warnings, evacuation and shelter-in-place orders, and hurricane and storm surge warnings (daytime only). Winter storms, heat and other alerts are notifications.
How often would Kinwarn call?
Times per year a warning covered the center of each city, 2016 to 2025:
| City | Tornado warnings | Destructive thunderstorm warnings |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson, MS | 2.1 | 0.5 |
| Moore, OK | 1.4 | 1 |
| Nashville, TN | 1.1 | 0 |
| St. Louis, MO | 1 | 0 |
| Tulsa, OK | 0.9 | 0.25 |
| Des Moines, IA | 0.9 | 0 |
| Little Rock, AR | 0.8 | 0.25 |
| Chicago, IL | 0.6 | 0.25 |
| Dallas, TX | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Minneapolis, MN | 0.2 | 0 |
Kinwarn count of National Weather Service warning outlines that covered each city’s center point, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive. Destructive tags started in August 2021, so that column counts 2022 to 2025. None of these 10 cities had a tornado emergency or a flash flood emergency in those years.
In a month, the busiest for any one of these homes needed 5 call alerts (Nashville, April 2025). Ten homes, one in each city, never needed more than 7 call alerts in a month. Kinwarn Pro includes 30. Homes close together count separately: one warning that covers two of your homes is two call alerts.
Monthly counts, 2016 to 2025, in Central time, for tornado, extreme wind, destructive severe thunderstorm and flash flood emergency warnings. Evacuation and shelter-in-place orders are not in this archive and are not counted.
Permission first
Kinwarn calls a number only after its owner agrees. When you add a number, Kinwarn calls it once to ask, and the person presses 1 to say yes. Press 9 during any call to stop all calls to that number.
Call Mom too.
Kinwarn Pro: up to 10 places and up to 3 phone numbers, including yours. $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan.
Coming soon to the App Store · iPhoneKinwarn adds to official alerts. Keep Wireless Emergency Alerts on.
Questions people ask
Is there a tornado warning app that calls you?
Kinwarn Pro calls up to 3 phone numbers, including yours, when a tornado warning covers a home you saved. The call says what the warning is, where, and until when. It works on cell phones and landlines.
Which warnings get a phone call?
Nine kinds: tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings tagged destructive, extreme wind warnings, flash flood emergencies, tsunami warnings, evacuation and shelter-in-place orders, and hurricane and storm surge warnings. Hurricane and storm surge calls happen only between 8 AM and 9 PM local time. Everything else is a notification.
How do I make sure the call rings at night?
Save the Kinwarn number as a contact on the phone that gets the calls. On an iPhone, turn on Emergency Bypass for that contact so the call rings even when the phone is on silent or in Sleep focus. The app shows how.
How many calls are included?
Up to 30 call alerts a month for the whole account. One call alert is one warning at one place, however many numbers Kinwarn calls about it. If you reach 30, calls stop until next month, and notifications and email keep coming. From 2016 to 2025, ten homes, one in each of 10 cities from Jackson, Mississippi, to Minneapolis, never needed more than 7 in a month.
How do I stop the calls?
Press 9 during any call to stop all calls to that number. You can also remove the number in the app at any time.