‘Don’t ignore severe weather push-alerts during monsoon season,’ says meteorologists at the National Weather Service

It can be easy to dismiss, or even ignore those push alerts that get sent to your phone during severe weather, but you shouldn't, at least according to weather experts.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service San Diego office are constantly monitoring storms in Southern California, including here in the desert. Sam Zuber is one of them, and she says monitoring weather is a full-time job indeed.

"Whatever we're warning about, whether it be flash flooding, or large hail, it is ongoing and occurring,” said Zuber. "We can pretty much get really large storms. And with those, we get really heavy rainfall because we have a lot of moisture in the air at the time. But we also can see things like large hail, really strong gusty winds."

Over the past few days some areas of Riverside County have seen monsoonal thunderstorms, including Palm Desert, which was hit hardest by flooding.

"A lot of people think monsoon and they think flooding. But really we can see some significant impacts from hail and wind as well as lightning," said Zuber. And those conditions can make a perfectly sunny day turn into a wet and possibly dangerous one in an instant.

 "Once they develop, they develop very rapidly over the mountain," explained Zuber. "So yes, it can really happen in the course of about a 30 minute timeframe where you go from just a little cloud to a pretty significant and maybe even severe thunderstorm that's producing life-threatening conditions.”

That's why she says its imperative you know the difference between a watch and a warning.

"The watch is hey, get prepared. There may be something that happens this afternoon or this evening or whatever timeframe. But the warning means that it is ongoing and it is happening right now," said Zuber.

Although it can be easy to tune out of severe weather alerts, doing so could endanger your life.

"We're talking about severe storms or flooding or whatever the case may be, but at that point that the warning is issued it's time to take action, you can no longer wait," said Zuber. "You need to actually take action in order to protect your life and your property. When something like this is occurring, and we're actively putting out notices that this is occurring, please take it seriously. Because we are trying to protect your life and we hope that you take the warning seriously and help us out with that."

You can stay informed by taking simple steps like signing up for push alerts from city, county, and emergency agencies.

"Honestly, it's always a great idea to activate any kind of push notifications from your local governments, emergency personnel," said Zuber. "Just because we're all here to try and protect you and you want to make sure that you're getting the information as soon as it's happening. And that's the fastest way really to do so. We understand multiple alerts can be annoying, but really, it is there to save your life."

You can also get up to the minute alerts by downloading the News Channel Three First Alert Weather App.