Google Now Tornado alert

[okiecardinal]

Google Now sent out the old NWS tone and tornado warning alert on my N4. This message beat the sirens by about 15 seconds, and the TV weathermen by about 5 seconds. The tornado really was in my vicinity too. No other alerts for all the other twisters more than 10 miles away.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I thought this was pretty slick. Color me impressed with this service of Google Now.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Google Now sent out the old NWS tone and tornado warning alert on my N4. This message beat the sirens by about 15 seconds, and the TV weathermen by about 5 seconds. The tornado really was in my vicinity too. No other alerts for all the other twisters more than 10 miles away.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I thought this was pretty slick. Color me impressed with this service of Google Now.

Same thing happened with me, and there was no way I was going to miss THAT notification... Since I don't have TV or anything that was kind of nice.

- - - Updated - - -

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

 

[vasekvi]

I've seen iOS devices do it too. Pretty awesome. Every phone should have it.

Sent from my AT&T Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[IAmSixNine]

Google Now sent out the old NWS tone and tornado warning alert on my N4. This message beat the sirens by about 15 seconds, and the TV weathermen by about 5 seconds. The tornado really was in my vicinity too. No other alerts for all the other twisters more than 10 miles away.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I thought this was pretty slick. Color me impressed with this service of Google Now.

Its less of a Google Now service and more of a carrier / FCC mandate that said handsets being manufactured after a certain date had to have the capability to get Cell Broadcasts of emergency alerts.
They are SMS Text Messages sent out and are based off the location of the tower you are connected to.
Once a geographic location is selected and the type of emergency is selected, the towers in that location are supposed to push a SMS text message in the form of the Emergency Alert Notification to your device.
But i did notice that Google Now also had a card on my Nexus 4 when we had some storms in our area a week ago. Prior to that i had a Note 2 and i got the SMS text but no google now card.
My guess is that it might be a 4.2.x tweak OR google now works better. LOL Either way im glad to see it helped you and the service is working like its supposed to.

 

[RumoredNow]

+1 for Cell Broadcast. Everyone should make sure they have this enabled.

Good to know it is working via Google Now. I've just gone into GNow and tweaked settings to get weather alerts and public alerts. I've not used GNow previouslyr except to peak in and see what it looked like. Thanks for the tip and glad to hear everything is OK after the warning.

 

[CoMoNexus]

Scary stuff, okie. Glad you're okay. I'm in central Missouri, and we could get tornadoes this afternoon.

 

[zkSharks]

I've received blizzard warnings from both Google Now and cell broadcasts while on photography trips in the northern Cascades; it's proven fairly helpful in figuring out which geographical areas are the safest for any given night.

 

[anon(847090)]

I got thunder storm warning yesterday on Google Now here in Iowa

 

[okiecardinal]

Thanks for the welcome. We just got blown away today. I know this is a tech forum, but if you don't mind send out some good thoughts our way in the Oklahoma City area. I'm going to be in the area affected tomorrow, and counseling is part of my job. Think/pray for those affected.

And the Google Now/phone warnings are still infinitely cool.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Thanks for the welcome. We just got blown away today. I know this is a tech forum, but if you don't mind send out some good thoughts our way in the Oklahoma City area. I'm going to be in the area affected tomorrow, and counseling is part of my job. Think/pray for those affected.

And the Google Now/phone warnings are still infinitely cool.

I heard about that a couple hours ago. I also heard the F5 came out of nowhere almost instantaneously. But it is times like this that the human spirit comes through.