It’s a fact of life that wherever you do your RVing you are occasionally going to have to deal with bad weather. We have been in monsoons in the Arizona desert that can fill dry riverbeds with raging floodwaters in a matter of seconds, more than once we have had tornadoes touch down within a couple of miles of us in the Midwest, we’ve been rocked by sandstorms, tropical storms, and even been in a snowstorm or two, though we try very hard to avoid any place where the white stuff is falling.
No matter where we are, we cannot always escape Mother Nature when she goes on an occasional rampage. But we can be aware of the weather around us and be prepared to seek shelter if necessary. One of the most frequent questions I get from RVers is which weather radios and phone apps do I recommend.
One weather radio I like is the handheld Midland HH54VP. It’s inexpensive, has three alert options (tone, voice, and visual), and stores up to nine county codes.
Another good unit is the AcuRite 08580 weather station, which works on both battery and home AC power.
Yet another I recommend is the iRonsnow IS-088 Dynamo, a self-powered emergency radio that runs on AC or DC power and can also be charged by solar power or with a hand crank. It receives AM/FM and NOAA weather broadcasts, and can also serve as an LED flashlight and a smart phone charger.
There are many excellent weather apps for smart phones. Two free ones I recommend and use are Radar Now! and Rainy Days, though there are many others to choose from.
Of course, you can have every kind of weather radio and phone app in the world and it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t know where you’re at. You may know what city your campground is located in, but do you know what county it’s in? Weather broadcasts are usually by county. An excellent app I use on my Samsung phone is one called Where Am I? It tells me my location by zip code, street address, city, state, and county, as well as my GPS coordinates. This is handy for a lot of things besides weather, including knowing the zip code when you want to have mail forwarded to you someplace, or telling roadside service or emergency responders exactly where to find you.
Knowledge is power, and can also be safety. Be aware of your surroundings. No matter where you happen to be, sunshine and blue skies can turn to clouds and hazardous conditions before you know it. But keep in mind that while you cannot control the weather, you shouldn’t live your life in fear of what might happen. Anywhere you go in the country something can happen, but the probability is that it won’t. So don’t dwell on it, just have fun enjoying the RV lifestyle.
Another way to enjoy the RV lifestyle is through John and Kathy Huggins’ weekly Living the RV Dream podcast, website, their two Facebook groups, and their annual rallies (this year’s rally will be in Bradenton, Florida in October). But because doing all that left him as much as 15 or 20 minutes a month free, John had to find some way to fill that idle time. So he just launched a new monthly RV newsletter. You can see a sample copy and subscribe at this link. Judging by what I saw in the first issue, he’s got another winner on his hands.
Thought For The Day – People don’t always remember what you say to them. But they never forget how you made them feel.
Check Out Nick’s E-Books In Our Online Store