There are some other ways to get alerts of the bad weather if you aren't watching/listening to the news or actively looking at their website.
1) The best option is to get a weather radio. I think all homes should have one and if you work in an office and don't have one, you might look at getting one for your office. They typically run $20 - $50 and you can get one at radio shack or other electronics stores. (http://www.radioshack.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2032069) AC powered with battery backup is ideal unless you're looking for a portable unit. The unique thing about weather radio is that it receives a coded alert from the National Weather Service and then sounds an alert. Some unites come with lights and text displays to show if it's a warning or a watch and what type of weather. And you can always hit a button to turn on the radio to hear the actual alert and weather reports straight from the National Weather Service.
2) Another great option is to get alerts to your cell phone. There are several ways to make that happen but the easiest in my opinion is to surf over to WeatherUSA (http://www.weatherusa.net/alerts/) and sign up to receive text message alerts. You can also get emails instead if you prefer. The free basic service is great and you can customize what alerts you'll get and even can set up during what hours of the day you want to receive alerts. I've used this service for almost 10 years and was my primary reason for my first text messaging plan.
3) If you do find yourself online and want to be notified, there are several options, widgets, etc for that. The one I like the best is to get alerts via rss feed straight from the National Weather Service. You can subscribe to the alerts for your county/area and view them in your normal RSS feed reader. I typically have used browser or email application based RSS feed readers. With Chrome, I'm using the RSS Live Links plugin that has a toolbar alert that shows when a new feed is posted. You can surf over to the National Weather Service page to get the feeds (http://alerts.weather.gov/). For most folks subscribing to the Counties feeds will be the best option. And you can subscribe to multiple feeds if you feel that you'll be speding most of your time in several different counties.
There are several other options out there for receiving the alerts. These are the ones that have worked for me. I recommend at minimal doing the sms text alerts. Easy to setup and no cost to implement if you already have a text plan. Whether you go with my options or find your own, the important thing is to make sure you're in the know.
