Midland Weather Radio review

It may come as a surprise, but tornado sirens are not intended to warn people who are indoors that a tornado may be approaching. Instead, they are only intended to warn people who are outdoors. This I learned after a recent tornado struck my area, and the residents in my town cried out to our town officials, upset that they had not heard the sirens go off while sleeping soundly in their beds, and in turn had found their families in danger.

At the advice of our local officials, I purchased the Midland Weather Radio (available at Amazon) . With over 17,000 Amazon customer reviews landing it at a 4.5-out-of-5-star rating, the Midland Weather Radio seems like a great option. But, I wondered, would it be too difficult to program and could it actually help keep my family safe?

I got the answers to my questions when a severe storm rolled into my area. Here's my experience.

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What is a weather radio?

A weather radio is a device that provides weather-related updates such as the current conditions, expected forecast, any potential upcoming weather watches, and imminent weather warnings in the areas where you have programmed your weather radio to monitor.

Designed to alert and/or alarm you in the event of a severe weather event, they take the worry out of not hearing a siren, not seeing an alert on your phone, or missing important information on the news, radio, or, even, on social media.

And, by also providing critical information such as “move to a basement or the lowest level of your home,” or “evacuate the area immediately,” during a severe weather-related event, weather radio helps you navigate your way through the situation in the safest ways possible.

How to program Midland Weather Radio

Programming the Midland Weather Radio is easy and won’t take more than a few minutes. Once plugged in, the radio display will direct you through a series of options, beginning with your language selection.

Using the “menu” and “select” keys, along with the up/down arrows, you will set the language, country, state, county, time, and the frequency that your local weather is broadcast through.

You can select if you want your alerts to come through via the display, voice, or a tone.

To go a bit further, if you’d like, you can even select the type of alerts you’d like to get including situations such as severe thunderstorm warning, avalanche, boil water advisory, fire, flash flood, and many others, even going a step further to include a child abduction.

Some severe and potentially deadly weather events, like a tornado warning, cannot be turned off, but many others leave the alert option up to you.

What we like

The weather radio is easy to set up

From start to finish it only took a few minutes to set up the weather radio, which is a huge plus when it comes to safety equipment. As a general rule, if it’s difficult to use, then there is a huge margin for error—a problem when you are relying on a device for its safety purposes.

Even without tech knowledge most people will still find confidence in their ability to easily and correctly program the radio, as long as they follow the step-by-step directions.

It offers safety and security

Knowing that the Midland Weather Radio was watching the weather even when I wasn’t helped me sleep better at night.

Living in Illinois, I’m no stranger to tornados, and there are many nights where I awaken to the crack of thunder, and then find myself staying awake until the storm has passed, because I’m nervous to go back to sleep and not hear the outdoor tornado sirens over the screeching of the wind.

I was assured that I would not miss a severe weather event warning, as I learned a few days into my test, when after a few days of substantial rains the weather radio suddenly alarmed and then a voice announced that our area was under a flash flood warning.

The radio then went on to provide helpful information such as the dangers of being in a car during a flash flood and where you might want to seek safety.

The radio’s visual display stated what the warning was for, as well as flashing the “warning” light on the unit itself.

It is sleek and portable

Although safety should always be more important than aesthetics, there is something to be said about safety equipment that isn’t overly obtrusive in size and appearance.

Small, sleek, and modern looking, the weather radio blends easily into a space and is also just as easy to tuck away out of sight, while still remaining diligent in doing its job.

And, because of its small size, it can even be tossed into a suitcase when your travels take you to a place where you may encounter weather situations that you aren’t familiar with; just remember to take a couple of minutes to program in your new location when you arrive.

What we don’t like

There is the potential for user error issues

Midland has done a phenomenal job making their weather radio easy to use, which as I stated before, is extremely important when it comes to safety equipment. But with that, comes the small caveat that you do need to be willing to follow the directions for setup.

When I first took the weather radio out of the box, the unit looked self-explanatory and so I dove right into programming it without even looking at the directions, which was a huge mistake.

Not only did I quickly realize that I had no clue what I was doing, but even after I pulled out the directions and took five minutes to program it the correct way, my previous fumbling had somehow set an actual alarm clock that woke up everyone in my family the next morning before the sun came up.

Although simply annoying, this could have been a bigger problem if I had programmed something important incorrectly, such as my location.

Was this my fault? Absolutely and I have no excuse since the directions are easy to follow, but for people who never read directions (I know you’re out there), this could be a problem.

Should you buy the Midland Weather Radio?

Yes, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind during severe weather.

A bit of a tightwad when it comes to managing my budget, the one area in which I never skimp on is safety. If it has the potential to keep my family safe, I will buy it (ask me why I have tourniquets in my car and a DeChoker in my kitchen).

But when it comes to the Midland WB120R weather radio, I don’t need to feel guilty about adding another safety product to my family's safety plan, because this weather radio definitely works.

Watching the weather even when I wasn’t, the Midland Weather Radio kept an eye and ear open, alarming us when necessary, and then providing information so that we could place ourselves in the safest position possible.

You do need to be willing to follow the directions for setup, but it truly only takes about five minutes, so it’s nothing to sweat about.

Severe weather events are unlikely to end anytime soon, and as the past few years have shown us, actually seem to be increasing in severity and intensity (we're looking at you, climate change). Because of that, I would highly recommend that if you value your family’s safety, you won’t hesitate to add a Midland Weather Radio to your home.

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.