This afternoon, Governor Bentley announced that Baron Services of Huntsville will provide its premium SAF-T-Net® service at no cost to all Alabama residents.

The premium version of the service normally offered by the company costs $3.99 per month or $45 for the year and provides National Weather Service polygon based tornado, severe thunderstorm, and flash flood warnings for up to four user-defined locations (including your smartphone) via phone, email, or text messaging. While a free version of the service is available, it only allows you to receive those warnings for one location and the types of warnings available are limited.

The service also provides updates from area media partners as they are available.

Currently residents are being encouraged to sign up for the service via any of the media partners in the state, including locally (all links to sign-up pages):

The Birmingham News/al.com
CBS 42
Fox 6

They may also visit www.alabamasaftnet.com and sign up directly with Baron Services. The company has provided an infographic via PDF explaining just how the service works (or you can watch the video available for viewing on the site’s media page).