Here in the southeast, we get a fair share of nasty storms in the spring and summer. The media I watch/listen to these days is often not real time or local in nature (mp3s, tivo, internet radio).  So my usual indicator that a nasty storm is approaching is the thunder and lightening. Not really the best system. This really holds true for when the nasty storm creeps up on us at 1am. What I really need is to know when a weather warning or watch has been issued for where I live.

So I wrote a perl app that queries the NWS CAP alert feed for warning/watch info. (http://www.weather.gov/alerts/). It currently only sends out emails and SMS messages when it detects an alert that you have told it you care about.

I'm still testing the app out, but I would love others to test it out and even possibly help develop a configuration interface for it. Currently today the config is an XML file edited by hand. Not the most user friendly. 

I think the chumby would be a great storm weather alarm for those that plan to use a chumby on their nightstand. My perl app could be a channel, and on an alert, sound off a special mp3 file or custom recording. Perhaps it could still do the SMS messages as well.

Anyone interested in this feature ?