“I have been evaluating over the past year and a half in north central Texas, a newly engineered device called TornadoAlert. The device works on the principle of sensing the sferics or static caused by lightning from thunderstorms as far as 20 or more miles away that may be potentially severe and approaching, or just passing safely by as a diminishing threat to our area. TornadoAlert not only alerts you but can indicate with its 12 step intensity LCD screen whether there is increasing or diminishing lightning activity.
I have to admit, I found the device far more helpful and effective than I ever thought it would be. At times it would justifiably surprised me with its signal since I was not always aware of any current convective weather. TornadoAlert would accurately indicate, Lightning” during an afternoon or evening thunderstorm event well before I could hear the thunder. The value of such situational awareness cannot be overstated. After all, convective weather falls into that dangerous category of short fused events that makes our country one of the most severe weather active nations on Earth.
And therein lies TornadoAlert’s greatest benefit. It has proven itself to me to be an important safety net as we find ourselves busy in our homes, or at our business, schools, or just any organization where our neighbors, coworkers, friends and family can gather. TornadoAlert was most effective helping to keep me vigilant of thunderstorms that can quickly move into and/or develop in my area.
Folks, needless to say TornadoAlert does not function to replace advanced weather radar that tracks development, storm & wind movement, and storm rotation. It is not a substitute for your U.S. National Weather Service warnings, alerts, status statements and watches. But it will alert you to seek the latest weather information from the NWS or your media.
In a couple of cases, the TornadoAlert reached its highest LCD intensity block and it marked, “Tornado” which were indeed reported by the U.S. NWS. However, in several other cases where “Tornado RISK“ was on its LCD screen, we had only severe storm conditions with very active lightning monitored.
Bottom line, I found TornadoAlert to be a valuable weather alerting tool that effectively prompts you to become more situationally aware of potentially dangerous weather around you.”
“I wanted to personally respond to your questions about our Tornado Alert Unit and the science behind it. Radar is not the only tool available for assessing weather conditions, an alternative method is based on “Sferics” (short for atmospheric radiation). “Sferics”, which is a broadband electromagnetic impulse that occurs as a result of natural atmospheric lightning discharges, is a phenomena and principle that has been known for over 50 years. Lightning doesn’t only make light and sound. The discharges also produce radio waves called Sferics.
Since Sferics propagate from their lightning source without major attenuation in the Earth-Ionosphere waveguide they can be received/detected thousands of kilometers from their source. In fact, on a time-domain plot, a sferic may appear as a single high-amplitude spike in the time-domain data. On a spectrogram, a sferic appears as a vertical stripe (reflecting its broadband and impulsive nature) that may extend from a few kHz to several mHz, depending on atmospheric conditions. It is this signal that the TAU uses to detect threats and differentiate lightning, non-severe thunderstorms and warn for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Before I get further into how the TAU works I wanted to mention that through Sferics anyone can turn any AM radio or older TV into a simple lightning detection device. Chances are you’ve heard them on the radio while listening to a baseball game or talk show on a somewhat distant AM station. Sferics also play a large role in lightning detection and mapping device technology currently in use around the world.
As you are probably aware, the current severe storms warning system, which is based on radar reflectivity, has been used for decades and is a great tool for forecasters, however, it has an extremely high false alarm rate with regard to tornadic activity, currently near 75%. This is because Doppler algorithms measure velocity or rotation and due to the physics of thunderstorms and tornadogenesis this is not always accurate. So, the NWS issues warnings based on Doppler that are further disseminated via NOAA Weather Radios through the Emergency Alert System. This too is also a great tool but it is dependent on the NWS being able to quickly disseminate the warning and communicate the threat. Also the lack of resolution of their warning there is no way for users to really know if the alarm is an imminent threat to their specific location without pursuing further information. All the while wasting valuable time to seek shelter if it is a real threat. When I say resolution, I am referring to the primary weakness in my opinion of the NOAA Weather Radio, which sends out notifications based on the county or CWA the threat is located in and not the specific geolocation that the warning polygon encompasses. Plus the users location must be set by the user, if they know how to properly program the device? Because of this, users often become desensitized to alarms because of the high false alarm rate and the fact that there is no way no know if it is an imminent threat without further investigation. It is because of these weaknesses that the TAU was developed as another tool to supplement, not replace Doppler and NOAA Weather Radio but to detect and quantify the threat of severe weather. The TAU detects threats within 30 miles (limited to this distance to improve resolution) and tracks the threats location to the user.” Con’t … ⇒ ⇒ ⇒
Con’t … “Due to the technology limitations, only crude and unreliable sensors like AM radios and older TVs were available for detecting lightning for years. Today, new electronic micro circuitry and antenna gain designs developed by Early Alert’s Technology Group, allow TAU users to not only detect EM frequencies generated by atmospheric lightning discharges but also measure and classify them based on a specific frequency threshold as Lightning Discharges, Non-Severe Thunderstorms, Severe Thunderstorms, Tornado Risk and Tornadoes. This is based on the threshold and identification of the specific frequency band or EM impulse discharged.
You are probably asking yourself how is it possible to differentiate lightning from a severe thunderstorm from a tornado? Well, this is because the TAU detects and analyzes trends in sferics (radio waves) within 30 miles of the sensor and detects electrical activity manifested within thunderstorms and the electrical activity that is generated by the formation and passage of tornadoes. This phenomena is well documented, as well as the luminous activity associated with the plasma generation during tornadogenesis within a supercell. Forest Patton (2008) recently confirmed the strength of the electric force compared to the centripetal acceleration to maintain cloud midlevel tornado vortices as measured as a tornado vortex signature (TVS). From this the threshold charge density was determined and this has been incorporated into the TAU.
Finally, Early Alert Technology Group is not the only entity researching this phenomena by measuring lightning and developing sensors. The NASA SPORT program and the University of Alabama Huntsville lead by Dr. Carey, have been analyzing Operational Total Lightning Data During Long-Track Tornadoes through the North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array (NALMA), a ground-based total lightning detection network owned and operated by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Dr. Carey specifically is researching lightning jumps and their correlation to tornado development. This lightning jump typically precedes the trigger point for reflectivity by from five to 20 minutes, so we could have that much more time to issue warnings. Unlike the TAU, the SPORT and LMA program is researching the rapid jump of cloud-to-cloud lightning inside thunderstorm cells related to horizontal rotation of a storm being tilted on-end upward inside a storm cell and the relationship to tornadogenesis. This strong updraft is the prerequisite for most high impact weather including hail, microbursts, straight line wind and tornadoes. While lightning jump is a good indicator which storms are building it is not a tool for specific weather events. While a lightning jump—which can double or triple the number of lightning strikes in a particular storm cell—might not foretell a specific severe weather event, detecting those jumps might help forecasters identify which specific storm cells should be more aggressively probed with Doppler radar.
NASA has been using this technology to detect storms on other planets for decades – most notably Galileo on Jupiter and Cassini on Saturn where the most powerful storm in the solar system was detected in 2010 using these scientific principles.
If you would like further information, background and abstracts validating this phenomena and capability I would be happy to provide them or you can call me or our engineer directly.”
“On April 25, 2015 at 3:59AM local time, the tornadoAlert alarm indicated a “Tornado Risk” within the San Antonio area for the possibility of imminent formation of a tornado associated with a severe thunderstorm approaching from the southwest. Multiple reports of 1″ to 2″ hail, 2-3 inches of heavy rain, and a “healthy 3 foot diameter mesquite tree snapped off 3 feet above ground level” accompanied the passage of this storm. At 3:54AM the NWS issued a severe thunderstorm warning located 7 miles southeast of Sabinal or 16 miles southwest of Hondo moving east at 25 mph. At 4:06AM the NWS issued a second warning for a severe thunderstorm located over Leon Valley or 8 miles northwest of San Antonio moving northeast at 45 mph, advising residents of hail damage to vehicles and wind damage to roofs. Subsequent evaluation of doppler radar imagery revealed mesocyclone rotation associated with the damage reports produced by this very dangerous severe thunderstorm around 4AM, justifying the “Tornado Risk” alarm provided by the tornadoAlert product.”
“I first encountered the TornadoAlert at an amateur radio function several years ago. After talking with the representatives for a while I realized that I was familiar with the method they use to detect tornados. What they have done is to have a dedicated receiver and advanced signal processing technology to detect the electrical signature of tornados and severe storms. It is completely independent of the NWS weather radio system.
I purchased one of the units and was very impressed with it. So much so that I have purchased six additional units for family members, friends, and our church.
My experience has been that the TornadoAlert works just as advertised. It serves three very important purposes for me.
First, when tornados are nearby the TornadoAlert most often gives me a warning minutes before I get a warning on my weather radio. Those extra minutes can be critical!
Second, the weather radio that serves my area covers a large area. Sometimes I get warnings for storms that may be up to forty miles from me or are following a path that comes nowhere near me. My TornadoAlert helps verify for me whether the storm is a danger to me. In June of this year (2023) I had an EF-1 tornado pass within five hundred feet of my home. This tornado had already been on the ground for a while, and the NWS had issued a tornado warning for our area. Then as the storm approached our area the Tornado Alert went off and we knew we needed to go to our safe room IMMEDIATELY! (They say tornados sound like a freight train. To me it sounded more like Niagara Falls!)
Third, I still have a way to be alerted to severe weather even if the weather radio system is off the air. That doesn’t happen often but in a recent outbreak of severe weather the weather warning transmitter was off the air for around twenty-four hours.
If you are looking for something that will give you and your family additional information during sever weather, the TornadoAlert is a great choice.”
“I lead the storm spotter’s network for Breeding Fire Department in Adair County, Kentucky. Simply put, I have over 30 years of broadcast experience in either radio or online service for severe weather coverage in our area.
TornadoAlert is the most amazing weather technology I have seen. Period. Do not let the naysayers place doubt in your mind or the mind of a company or organization that TornadoAlert is an unproven worthless device, because it isn’t. It works.
I will add that I strive to be credible in what information I give to the public and I never want to be part of a team the cries “wolf”. Add TornadoAlert to your weather preparedness equipment, you’ll be glad you did.”
“We have been testing a unit in South Africa for the last two years and have had great results. The unit is extremely accurate and have helped us provide information to residents and provide a service on our site. The unit is not only there to warn people I feel these days it’s a necessity to have to be able to keep your loved ones save. I would recommend it to everyone.”
“There was no Tornado Warning last night in Bloomington, Indiana, but this thing knew that there was. It was at “TORNADO!” with full bar strength right before the power went out. This is why I got the tornadoAlert detector. This would be a backup to your NOAA Weather Radio. These detectors are expensive, but highly recommended.”
“My tornadoAlert warned of SEVERE WEATHER approximately 20 miles from my location in Marietta, GA at 3:33PM on May 25th. It had already alerted us for approaching NONSEVERE threat conditions. The warning preceded Natiuonal Weather Service warnings for the area south of us by 20 minutes. The SEVERE WARNING condition reverted back to NONSEVERE in about 10 minutes as the threat moved away from my area. Prior to that, the NONSEVERE front tracked the approach and approximate distance from our location accurately. The fact that the unit updates the threat type and its approximate distance every 60 seconds gave me unprecedented situational awareness.”
“I’ve owned a TAU for about six weeks now, and I continue to be impressed with it. Unlike weather radios, the unit only alarms when dangerous conditions are nearby. And even before the unit sounds the alarm, it regularly provides owners with updates on nearby lightning and storm intensity reports. I’ve been really impressed with the level of customer service from earlyAlert; they actively seek feedback and data from users to continue to improve the product. It’s exciting to see a company actively building relationships with its product’s users, allowing TAU owners to be a part of the team. The TAU represents the most recent evolution in affordable weather detection technology. I highly recommend anyone with an interest in weather monitoring to keep one in their home and workplace.”
“It really does work, earlier warning than the news. – I wasn’t sure this would work, but for less than 100 then it was worth to try. The setup seems like a lost cause if you’re in stormy weather already (and you wanted to relocate it to another room). Just leave it plugged in and it’ll complete the setup overnight when the house is quiet.
It goes off for severe weather (rainy thunderstorms), lightning storm, tornado warning, and tornado activity (actual twister within 30 miles). All confirmed!”
” This device works! NO snake oil here. – I have 2 of these in two different homes. I decided to get one after experiencing a tornado event at 5am. At the time I had a weather radio and it was on but never alerted. My towns sirens only went off after the tornado had hit a few homes. I lost my balcony and my neighbor lost her roof. It was a very weak tornado but caused lots of damage. I lost confidence in the National Weather Service to alert me and the warning sirens. This device has alerted me several times to sever weather, tornado risks, and tornado. Each time it has been minutes ahead of the National Weather Service. It has allow me the time to take shelter long before sirens go off. I am not sure exactly how this thing works all I can say is it does. I have used it in Iowa, Illinois, and Texas. It really does work and is one of the best things you can spend your money one.”
“I Highly Recommend This Device – I own several of these devices and have used them for several years in my home in Maryland, winter residence in Florida, and motorhome. I have found them to be very accurate in predicting severe weather. I’m not an engineer, but I believe it works by detecting and measuring static electricity in the atmosphere. Static electricity is produced during weather events like thunder storms and tornadoes. Tornadoes generate huge amounts of static electricity as they spin and pickup debris. The device must be turned on and working well BEFORE a storm moves in. You can’t turn it on during a storm because the atmosphere will prevent the sensors from properly calibrating. Although you’ll plug this device into an AC outlet, you should keep a fresh battery installed in case the power goes off. This will keep the device working if you loose power. If you loose AC power, and don’t have a battery installed, you cannot restart the device during a storm. A battery will keep the thing working. You must place the device in a window, facing the general direction (if known) of incoming bad weather. There are separate switches to turn on strobe lights and an audio siren. You can turn one or both of these notifications off. This will prevent the strobe and audio alarm from working during severe thunderstorms. Even if these switches are turned off, the device will still activate the strobe lights and alarm if it detects a possible tornado.”
“ High Reliability – A little skeptical at first but no longer. This thing picks up perfect. We had a severe storm blow through last weekend. When the alarm went off I checked the radar and there it was reds and purples. The NOAA radio nor the cell phone went off. Amazing
Update – we just had our first tornado since getting device. NOAA warned of a tornado in the county to the east of us. We live in Walworth county WI, tornado was for Milwaukee county. Tornado Alarm started screeching tornado risk indicator bars rose to 9 of 10. Like Midwest folk we headed straight for the basem…. Yeah I mean driveway. We saw the tornado it was about 5 miles away guessing. Once again NOAA missed tornado Alarm got it. Will be purchasing more for friends and relatives in Alabama.
2nd update… Purchased additional 2 units for friends in Alabama after this weekend’s tornado event. Apparently NOAA is missing the mark more often due to needing to change detection algorithm accounting for windmill power generator, they reflect radar while spinning and look intense when storms make them spin faster.”
” I picked up my Tornado Alert at the Huntsville (radio) Hamfest after talking to one of their representatives.
When I first got it home I set it up in the middle of our house where it could be heard from anywhere in the house. I made the mistake of not first installing a 9v battery. The first storm event came early one morning. It knocked out the power for just a few seconds, so the unit was trying to calibrate itself during a lightning storm, which will not work. Make sure you install the 9v backup battery. I recommend energizer’s lithium 9v.
The second time I was able to observe the unit was on a Saturday afternoon. I was aware that thunderstorms were in the forecast for that day. My family and I had been out riding bicycles around town and we could see out west were the sky was turning black so we went home and put the bicycles up. Went inside and the Tornado Alert was displaying “SEVERE STORM” with an audible alarm and strobe light. I checked the radar and the storm was about 25 miles out headed our way (we live in North Dakota where we have that type of open sky visibility). About five minutes later our NOAA weather radio went off with a severe thunderstorm warning for our county. Impressive to say the least.
The next several weather events we had were just normal run of the mill storms in which the Tornado Alert would either display “LIGHTNING” or “NOT SEVERE”.
Today was the true test. We had a storm come up from the south and go to the east of town that had the tell tell signs of tornadic activity (see the radar image in this review). When the cell was about twenty miles out the Tornado Alert displayed “TORNADO RISK”!!! This is the first time I’ve ever seen the unit display “tornado” anything. As the cell got closer to the house the unit alerted “TORNADO”!!! I didn’t take the time to snap a picture. I ran out the front door and observed a funnel cloud just east of town!
I don’t normally review products because I find most things marketed now are mostly full of empty promises. I was not compensated for this review in any way. I spent my own money on the TA-01-13, and I’m glad I did. This truly is a fantastic unit that does exactly what it’s described to do.
Don’t make the same mistake I did when I first powered on my unit. Make sure you put a 9v battery in so it won’t get stuck trying to calibrate itself during a storm, which it won’t be able to do. This thing could save your life.”
“ Unit works as designed. – Unit correctly identifies storm intensities as they approach about 30 miles out. Thankfully no tornado detection as of yet but based on accuracy so far the unit should detect one as advertised.”
“Worked better then we thought it would. – Worked great. Tornado was in our area and this unit alerted us about 15 minutes before it passed by our area without incident, but gave us plenty of time to watch which way the tornado was moving.”
“The storm alert process on this radio is more than impressive. Multiple storms were approaching the Dallas Fort Worth area and the “TornadoAlert” radio alerted me as to what was headed to my area. Several minutes later, my Midland WR400 and various scanners were notified, via NOAA, with the storms approaching my location.This is a really cool and impressive buy…”
“It just seems to work – just like it is supposed to – What is amazing to me is how it never issues a false alarm. We have had the device in our house for about 2 years, and in every case, when there is some severe weather in the area (it is supposed to capture anything within 30 miles)- it detects it and sounds the alarm. But never alarms when there is no storms, or when the storms are weak. It detects the weak ones, and displays that there are weak storms or just lightning, but doesn’t wake you up with the alarm. Since it is constantly updating the severity of storms in the area, there is no delay when a storm pops up or increases intensity. I feel much better knowing that if the NWS warnings are too late, or never issued, which happens a lot, this device will not be.”
“Personal weather station – We have owned this for around 45 days. I am not sure how well it works for indicating Tornado’s since we live in Georgia and do not get them often. However, it works well indicating incoming rain & thunderstorms. It monitors storms coming toward the unit at about 30 miles out the screen will change from No Threats to Lightning, Non Severe, Severe, or Tornado. Under the words, it has a storm strength indicator that adds more bars as the storm gets closer or grows in intensity. So far, this seems to be spot on and has notified us of storms coming that we were not expecting. As I said, it is hard to test the Tornado part since it is a rare event but I trust (hope) that if that day comes it will work as expected. From what I have read, it somehow senses the storm itself and does not pull from an outside weather service.”
“Every House in the South Should have One – We have had the TornadoAlert for several years. Thunderstorms frequently travel through the remote area where we live. Tornadoes are possible. We tried a weather radio, but the alerts we received rarely applied to us. When this alert goes off, we check our apps and move to the appropriate part of the house. Friday night it woke us. We questioned whether or not it at malfunctioned…no bad weather was expected. Then our CodeRed alerts started going off. The TornadoAlert had correctly identified a possible threat quicker than our county CodeRed system.”
“Well I thought it was just a gizmo, but this thing works great! Going on 2-3 years (don’t remember when bought) it notifies severe weather. Don’t believe the 1-2 Star negative reviews considering they might work for a competitor or just have a bad one? It alarmed yesterday on tornado (didn’t see one) and 15 minutes later killed two people in Madill Oklahoma 15 miles from here…4-22-2020. We have a great cellar but what good is it if you are sleeping soundly? Good money spent in our case anyhow!”
“Early warning, time to respond – I purchased the Tornado Alert for it’s advertised accuracy and the advanced warning of severe weather and tornados that may pose a heat to my mountain community.. It has responded as represented, warning of potential severe weather 15 minutes ahead of the weather radio I also have on hand. I have not experienced a near by tornado yet, and hope I do not! it was straight forward to set up and remained in service throughout the storm.
I recommend it to friends and family! – especially if you live in rural areas or are a heavy sleeper like me….”
“It does what it claims – Amazing device. The day I got it, we has very bad WX. It warned as much as 10 minutes before the national weather service. Living in “tornado alley”, this can make all the difference. Same happened a few days later. I believe the 95% claim.
It does have some issues however. The buttons on the front do not operate like the book says. The results are random. Also the operation of the back light seems random also. The placement can be difficult. The book explains this and makes sense because if is so sensitive. It needs to be near a window which is exactly where you do not want to be with lightening tornados are near.”
“Tracking it on radar now. This one may come through our neighborhood. I am more impressed with the TAU every day. Today’s alarm gave me a good 20 minutes of notice ahead of the NWS warning. I tell anyone who I think would be interested to buy one of these. Amazing product!”