Severe weather alerts/automation?

[politics123]

Hey --

So, has anyone else tried to automate based on the weather service's severe weather alerts? (eg: S.A.M.E based-trigger that triggers the lights coming on and voice prompt "tornado" or "severe weather")?

There's one post here that briefly touches on using a weather radio with contact output to trigger a zone alarm.
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=3009

Any equipment recommendations? Can the response be rules-based (eg: alert for tornados, but email-only for flooding or snow)?

Thanks!

 

[WayneW]

the radios I have seen or used only had a simple contact closure. Therefore you had no idea if it was a test signal, a watch or a warning. Therefore you couldn't do much with rules other than "when possible bad weather, do this".

I think there are some weather radios that now have an RS-232 output, but I haven't looked into them or their protocols. If it was an open, simple protocol, you could probably write some effective rules.

Of course, if you are using a PC with an internet connection, then you have a ton of resources and could do very specific rules.

 

[upstatemike]

Isn't there a Homeseer plugin that does something like that?

 

[Rupp]

Tom Caldwell wrote a free script called Weather Warnings availabe in this thread.
http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t...eather+warnings

 

[bradsjm]

The EAR at http://www.emergencyalertradio.com/ is software programmable and also has a 9600bps serial output with decoded ASCII SAME messages that can be parsed.

 

[Rupp]

The EAR at http://www.emergencyalertradio.com/ is software programmable and also has a 9600bps serial output with decoded ASCII SAME messages that can be parsed.

For $50 more dollars you can buy HomeSeer and get the weather warnings and an entire automation package.

 

[TonyNo]

Not sure if this is the same, but I've written a Weather Warnings macro for PowerHome that announces issued (and filtered) warnings. If I'm not home, I get a text message sent to my phone. I parse the info from www.weather.gov.