Heat Alarm at 1:55 AM

[dtennent]

Beginning of rant

I usually appreciate the alarms that come from Sumter County. I signed up for it because it warns me of upcoming mosquito control spraying. But a warning at 1:55 AM about excessive heat? What information changed from 9 PM that required a warning in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t that be better at 7 AM?

Ok, rant over.

[Lovey2]

Beginning of rant

I usually appreciate the alarms that come from Sumter County. I signed up for it because it warns me of upcoming mosquito control spraying. But a warning at 1:55 AM about excessive heat? What information changed from 9 PM that required a warning in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t that be better at 7 AM?

Ok, rant over. You are so correct!! The timing was totally unnecessary! Not many people up at 2AM making or able to cancel plans, I would think.

[Bogie Shooter]

Miss-directed rant……….

[Bill14564]

Beginning of rant

I usually appreciate the alarms that come from Sumter County. I signed up for it because it warns me of upcoming mosquito control spraying. But a warning at 1:55 AM about excessive heat? What information changed from 9 PM that required a warning in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t that be better at 7 AM?

Ok, rant over.

Agreed, 7 am would have been much better.

[TedfromGA]

Look closely at the message. The warning was for yesterday, July 28. Not for today. Clearly a technical problem occured as the alert should have gone out on 7/28 am not 1:55am on 7/29.

[asianthree]

I thought it was the timer on my phone. Just cleaning up kitchen from prepping brisket to smoke.
Took me a minute to figure out it was Sumter misdirected alert.

[Stu from NYC]

Annoying, wife and I got the call a minute apart. When we get a call middle of the night first thought is a death.

[Bill14564]

Look closely at the message. The warning was for yesterday, July 28. Not for today. Clearly a technical problem occured as the alert should have gone out on 7/28 am not 1:55am on 7/29.

The text message I received was an alert for an excessive heat warning from noon until 7 pm on today, 7/29. Nothing incorrect about the date.

[Pugchief]

If you must leave your phone on overnight, put it on Do Not Disturb. You can set it to allow through calls/texts from select people/numbers.

[Snakster66]

If you must leave your phone on overnight, put it on Do Not Disturb. You can set it to allow through calls/texts from select people/numbers.

I see we have reached the "blame the victim" segment of the discussion.

[Bjeanj]

I see we have reached the "blame the victim" segment of the discussion.

Not really. I saw that post more as being helpful for those who might be technically… inept? Unknowledgeable about functions/features on their phone?

[Pugchief]

I see we have reached the "blame the victim" segment of the discussion.

LOL. Let no helpful comment go unpunished.

Perhaps maybe you have a better solution to middle of the night texts that you otherwise can't control? Now that would be a productive post.

[Bogie Shooter]

Here is the Sumter County Alert web page.

Alert Center • Sumter County, FL • CivicEngage (https://www.sumtercountyfl.gov/AlertCenter.aspx)

They even have a “report a concern “ option……… imagine that.

[Stu from NYC]

If you must leave your phone on overnight, put it on Do Not Disturb. You can set it to allow through calls/texts from select people/numbers.

Since this happens very infrequently would rather get emergency calls.

The two 2 am calls we got last night were not that.

[CarlR33]

My weather app was doing the same notification thing in the middle of the night.

[GreggC69]

Two things:

First, I saw somewhere that the NWS issued the warning. My guess is that the Sumter County system is designed to push NWS warnings asap to subscribers

Second, not sure I agree with the suggestion to silence notifications during the night. What if there is a true emergency (tornado etc) at 2:00am, would you not want to get the alert?

[Velvet]

There were so many alarms on my emergency radio over the years (especially when I was sleeping) that now I have it unplugged. Nothing actually really happened. (Which I am grateful for.) If they reduce the number of their watches etc and warn you when something is close to actually happening, I will plug it in again.

[MandoMan]

Beginning of rant

I usually appreciate the alarms that come from Sumter County. I signed up for it because it warns me of upcoming mosquito control spraying. But a warning at 1:55 AM about excessive heat? What information changed from 9 PM that required a warning in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t that be better at 7 AM?

Ok, rant over.

Is that what that call was? My phone said Potential Spam, so I didn’t answer it. Mine came at 2:05. Like you, I was not amused.

[asianthree]

Is that what that call was? My phone said Potential Spam, so I didn’t answer it. Mine came at 2:05. Like you, I was not amused.

Your Sumter Warning are going to spam? Why not opt out of system, it’s very easy.
My phone rejects any spam numbers I have and phone never rings.

[La lamy]

Another vote for Do Not Disturb setting for sleepy time.

[Bill14564]

Your Sumter Warning are going to spam? Why not opt out of system, it’s very easy.
My phone rejects any spam numbers I have and phone never rings.

I believe his are being tagged as spam due to the way the number is used. It still rings, he just doesn’t pick it up.

I just set mine to be blocked as spam and not ring. I still want the text but I cannot see a way to provide a number for texts without also receiving the calls. EDIT: This appears to have been changed and I can now provide a text number without providing a mobile number for calls.

The system appears to have relayed a warning from the NWS in a timely fashion. It didn’t evaluate what kind of warning it was, it just passed it along. This is exactly what you want for some weather alerts, but not heat warnings. Perhaps this a one-time thing from NWS and in the future, heat-related alerts will be sent at a more reasonable time.

[Nana2Teddy]

The alerts I receive (mosquito spraying, extreme heat, severe thunderstorms, etc) only come through as texts, never as phone calls or any kind of alarm.

[ThirdOfFive]

On the-glass-is-half-full side of things...my guess is that very few people who got that alert forgot it the next day.

But...c'mon! End of July + Central Florida = HEAT. Are alerts really needed for that? Just like back UpNort, before we moved here, they had begun issuing alerts (thankfully not on phones) in January for when below-zero temps were expected. According to the MN DNR, Minnesota averages TWENTY below-zero days in January per year.

Heat advisories are issued in FL when the heat index is projected to be at 108 degrees F or higher. According to AI/Google (yeah...I know...) "It's impossible to give an exact number of days with a heat index of 108°F or higher in Central Florida during July, as it varies year to year. However, July is typically one of the hottest months, and heat indices frequently reach or exceed that level."

It is July. This is Florida. It is gonna be HOT!! Do we really need to our electronic toys to buzz, flash or clang (2 AM or any other time) to remind us of that? Poking your nose out the front door is usually enough.

[Bill14564]

The alerts I receive (mosquito spraying, extreme heat, severe thunderstorms, etc) only come through as texts, never as phone calls or any kind of alarm.

Thanks. It looks like the system has improved a bit. I don’t remember separate text and mobile entries before. (or I just didn’t notice)

[Babbs1957]

Correct Way to Rant

So alerts have come along way since the the beginning of our great country.
"The British are coming, the British are coming" :crap2:
But perhaps we should have Act Immediately Alerts

There are very few alerts that should go out immediately and require immediate action. Heat is not one of them. Heat is obvious in this area and is not a sudden event. It builds over time, making it obvious to even the youngest person. For this area I would expect to hear about a freeze warning, tornado warning, even damaging winds and hail alerts. No you don't need a hurricane warning. They don't just pop up. Heat does not just pop up. For non-act immediately warnings, maybe just a text. Example: "A hurricane is building in the Atlantic and is possibly 5 days away from your area. Please tune into your local weather for continued information". When the temp has been in the 90s for the last few weeks, the sudden change in temp from 93 to 94 does not mean sudden heat. If it was January and normally chilly, then at 2am the temp suddenly jumped to 93, then yes, a heat warning would be nice, but there might be more serious issues at hand. My phone going off in the middle of the night causes my blood pressure to skyrocket and "better be an emergency" or am I happy it's not an emergency and something wrong with one of my children. Relief or mad? How about just eliminating common sense warnings.

[jsa]

LOL. Let no helpful comment go unpunished.

Perhaps maybe you have a better solution to middle of the night texts that you otherwise can't control? Now that would be a productive post.


100% agree.

Better to complain about the call than to take personal responsibility to prevent it.

If they aren't interested in the tip then they can enjoy the next phone call at 1:55AM :rolleyes:

[gorillarick]

"What if there is a true emergency (tornado etc) at 2:00am, would you not want to get the alert?"

So what would you do then? Maybe go outside and bring the lawn furniture in?

[Bill14564]

"What if there is a true emergency (tornado etc) at 2:00am, would you not want to get the alert?"

So what would you do then? Maybe go outside and bring the lawn furniture in?

Yes. And move away from the windows. And get dressed and prepared to leave if necessary.

[Used2u]

Beginning of rant

I usually appreciate the alarms that come from Sumter County. I signed up for it because it warns me of upcoming mosquito control spraying. But a warning at 1:55 AM about excessive heat? What information changed from 9 PM that required a warning in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t that be better at 7 AM?

Ok, rant over.

Then Unsubscribe if you don't like it.

[asianthree]

"What if there is a true emergency (tornado etc) at 2:00am, would you not want to get the alert?"

So what would you do then? Maybe go outside and bring the lawn furniture in?

One way to look at tornado watch/warning in Florida. First your TV would be nonstop news about the possibility of tornadoes for at least 72 hours prior. You would have already prepared outdoor furniture.
No basement to escape to so pick a room that doesn’t have giant Live Oak to fall on you. Or in some cases drop another house on you.

Not much one can do at 2am, that hasn’t already been attempted earlier. We do miss the warning sirens that other states use.

[Sharkey]

How does one sign up for these alarms?

[Bill14564]

How does one sign up for these alarms?

https://member.everbridge.net/453003085614874/login

[azcindy]

I just signed up for the Alerts based on this post. Thank you. You can select the only alerts you want - I selected just the mosquito spraying and the hurricane and tornado warnings. I did not select the "watches" or anything about hot weather or any of the other selections. There is also a do not disturb selection where you can mute alerts between certain hours if you want. I will leave this option unselected at first as I want to get these major updates in the middle of the night if necessary.

Cindy

[Jalane]

Annoying, wife and I got the call a minute apart. When we get a call middle of the night first thought is a death.

Did you actually received a phone call? We just got a message that we found the next morning.

[Jalane]

Two things:

First, I saw somewhere that the NWS issued the warning. My guess is that the Sumter County system is designed to push NWS warnings asap to subscribers

Second, not sure I agree with the suggestion to silence notifications during the night. What if there is a true emergency (tornado etc) at 2:00am, would you not want to get the alert?


We, too had sirens in our previous location. We bought a weather radio that alerts us with an alarm and a verbal announcement in the case of a tornado.