Hennepin County's Weather Alerts Get Personal This Spring

Starting this March, Hennepin County is set to launch a new way to get weather alerts. Instead of blasting warnings for the whole county, the National Weather Service will now target just the areas in danger. This new system, called Partial County Alerting (PCA), is scheduled to kick off on March 18, 2025. If you're a Hennepin County resident and want to get these localized alerts, you'll need to update your NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards. Look up your city or area on the SAME code map and swap out the county-wide code '027053' with the right one for where you live. If you're near a boundary, you might want to add more than one code. This change is only happening in Hennepin County for now, and it includes cities like Rogers, Hanover, and Maple Grove. Other counties might see this change later, but it's not clear yet. Residents probably won't notice the difference until summer, when hazardous weather picks up. What do you think about this new alert system? It's designed to keep you safer, but will it work as planned?