WGN-TV is teaming up with Midland Radio Corporation and Walgreens for a weather event known as, “Tom’s Weather Day,” on Saturday May 5, 2012 from 11am – 2pm at the Walgreens on 235 Palatine Road in Arlington Heights.
WGN’s Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling will be meeting and greeting guests in an effort to talk about the importance of advance weather warnings to save lives during severe weather events.
Midland NOAA Weather Alert Radios will available for purchase at Walgreens. NOAA radios transmit immediate notification of severe weather or emergency alert signals broadcasted by the National Weather Service to users, which is helpful when severe weather strikes quickly.
National Weather Service meteorologist Amy Seeley as well as Suzi Voss and Matt Gillen from the Chicago Forecast office will be available to help program the radios’ SAME settings, which allow alerts to be activated.
SAME is the acronym for Specific Area Message Encoding and is the protocol used to encode the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and NOAA Weather Radio’s SAME Public Warning System in the U.S. and Weatheradio Canada in Canada.
Alerts are categorized by Event Level — Advisory, Watch or Warning. They include Tornado Warnings, Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, Blizzard Warnings and more.
The Arlington Heights Fire Department are scheduled to bring their severe weather tornado simulator truck to the event and show guests how to take cover during a severe storm.
The Cook County Department of Homeland Security & Emergency Management will be offering advice on how to prepare a safe room and other general preparedness.
A portion of the proceeds from the radios will be donated to the American Red Cross.
For more information, go to wgntv.com/weatherday