Emergency Alert Test Planned For Wednesday Includes Wireless Phones

DENVER (CBS4) - A national test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system is scheduled to take place at 12:20 p.m. MDT on Wednesday, August 11. The test will trigger tones followed by a test alert message on your radio, television and wireless phone.

For wireless devices specifically, this is a great time to make sure you have your phone configured to receive emergency alerts. That's because earlier this month the National Weather Service upgraded their warning system for severe thunderstorms.

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Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in the United States now have a classification that will trigger an emergency alert to your phone if the storm is capable of producing wind speeds reaching 80 mph or hail as big as 2.75 inches in diameter. If meteorologists don't expect wind that strong or hail that big, you'll still get a warning, but only if you currently have a way to get those, such as through the free CBS Denver Weather app offered by CBS4.

For information on how to make sure your phone is set up to get alerts, click here. The link will take you to a set of instructions on the FCC.gov website.