Sometimes it’s nice to get a heads-up about an incoming storm. At times it is very important. On rare occasions, it saves lives.

Many smartphone users can now receive texts about severe weather from the National Weather Service, USA Today reported.

The Wireless Emergency Alerts system has begun sending warnings to mobile phones and similar devices about incoming severe storms — tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards and the like.

As a general warning is posted for a specific county, a message will alert late-model smartphones of a dangerous storm. The alert will cause phones to sound a special tone and vibrate.

Citizens do not have to sign up for the service, and they can discontinue it if they like.

The service is intended to help people who may not be watching TV or listening to the radio. The alerts will give people “the information needed so they can be safe until the threat is over,” said Amy Storey, spokeswoman for the CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group.

Although the system does not operate for all smartphones or all areas of the country, this sounds like a good use of technology. It is a start that can be developed to warn people of dangerous weather.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer