Wireless carriers that represent more than 97% of subscribers have volunatarily agreed to offer free severe weather alerts.   The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) service will begin this month.  The alerts will include warnings for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, extreme winds, flash floods, earthquakes, ice storms and lake effect snow storms among others.   A special type of text messaging will alert cell phone users with messages under 90 characters.  Best of all, the warnings will be based on your current location.   In other words, if you are traveling outside of home, you will only receive warnings for the area you are in. 

The National Weather Service cautions that we shouldn't rely on the WEA service alone for weather warnings.  A NOAA weather radio is still vital.

The WEA system is possible because of a cooperative effort between wireless carriers, FEMA, Department of Homeland Security, FCC and the National Weather Service.

Click on your wireless carrier below to get more details:

Sprint

Verizon

T-Mobile

AT&T

US Cellular

http://twitter.com/WGNWeatherGuy

http://www.facebook.com

 

Some damage from the south side of Gary. Trees snapped and power lines downed. Same area where earlier report indicated wall partially blown down and roof torn off.

ILZ022-023-INZ001-002-010-011-210345-
WILL-KANKAKEE-LAKE IN-PORTER-NEWTON-JASPER-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...JOLIET...KANKAKEE...GARY...VALPARAISO...
MOROCCO...RENSSELAER
936 PM CDT SUN MAY 20 2012

...STRONG WINDS WITH WEAKENING THUNDERSTORMS...

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS
INDICATE STRONG WINDS...LOCALLY IN EXCESS OF 40 MPH...OCCURRING
OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL LAKE COUNTY INDIANA. THESE
STRONG WINDS COULD AFFECT PORTIONS OF EASTERN WILL...EASTERN
KANKAKEE...NORTHERN NEWTON...SOUTHERN PORTER...AND NORTHERN JASPER
COUNTIES THROUGH 1045 PM CDT.

Thanks to Stanley Pain for capturing this great shot of tonight's eclipse from Lisbon, Illinois. Photo by Stanley Pain

Thanks to J Gardiner for passing along this shot of mammatus clouds taken during this evening's thunderstorms. Photo by J. Gardiner

Thanks to Joshua David of Dyer, Indiana who took this great shots of this evening's solar eclipse just before the thunderstorms moved in. Photo by Joshua David

Damage report from an unincorporated portion of Gary.. Strong winds caused a partial wall collapse and tore a roof off. Damage occurred around 7:55 pm

Thanks to Elizabeth, Conor and Meghan Ramseyer, William and Margaret Farrell and Rich DeCoster for sending us this shot of the eclipse.