Storm warnings by text: when the internet drops out, your phone still knows

On Thursday 22 October our station had about 36 mm in the gauge by 6 am. By mid afternoon it was around 187 mm, with the rain at one point coming down at 80.6 mm an hour, and Terrors Creek went well past twice the height where we treat that crossing as closed. A lot of people in the valley were at work, on the road, or out in a paddock with one bar of signal and no reason to open an email.

That day stuck with us. A warning only helps if it actually reaches you, and on the worst days the usual ways to reach you are the first to fail. So since this week our warnings also come as a plain text message, the old fashioned SMS, for every paying member who adds a mobile number.

This post explains what the texts are, what they are not, and how to switch them on. If you are not a member yet, it also explains why we reckon this is the best $3.95 you will spend this storm season.

Why a text message, in 2026

We already send storm warnings by email and by push notification. Both work well, most of the time. The trouble is the “most of the time”.

• Email waits. It sits in the inbox until you look. Plenty of us only check it at night, and a storm warning read at 9 pm about a storm at 4 pm is history, not a warning.
• Push notifications can vanish. A browser update, clearing the cache, a new phone, and the permission is gone without a word. We see this in our own records: subscriptions that were working one week and switched off by the browser the next. We now show a note on your dashboard when that happens, but you only see it if you log in.
• A text needs almost nothing. No app, no home internet, no data. If the phone has battery and a bar of mobile signal, the text arrives. When the power is off and the modem is dark, that matters.

That sounds harder on email than we mean it. For the full detail of a storm, which cells, how far, which way, the email is still the better read. We are not throwing out email or push. They stay, and they have no monthly limit. The text is the backup, the one that comes through when the other two coudl not.

What we text you about

Only safety warnings go by text. No newsletters, no “check out our new page”, nothing to sell you. You pick which of these you want:

The texts come from exactly the same warnings that send our emails. Nothing new decides there is a storm. The SMS is just one more way out the door for a warning we already issue.

A storm text looks like this:

Dayboro storm warning: lightning within 50 km. Nearest 38 km west, moving east. https://dayboro.au/warn Stop texts: https://dayboro.au/sms

Short, plain, and the link opens our current warnings page with the live radar one tap away. You know in two seconds if this one is for you or not.

The storm on 6 October, and what a text would have told you

The first real storm of this season rolled through on 6 October. We wrote it up in how to read our lightning dashboard. The closest lightning was 129 km out at three in the morning. The first strike inside 25 km landed at 10:37, and one hit 3.1 km from the station. That is the best part of seven hours from first sign to “get inside”.

Seven hours is a gift, if you know about it. With texts set to 25 km, you would have had one text at 10:37, the moment the first strike came inside 25 km, while there was still time to get the horses in, get off the tractor, or pull the kids out of the pool. With 100 km you would have known before breakfast. The storm did not care if you had opened your email.

Storms here also like the late afternoon. Of the 2,727 strikes within 100 km of Dayboro our station logged from mid January to 11 October, 38% came between 16:00 and 18:59. That is school pick up, the drive home up the range, feeding time. It is exactly the time the most of us are not sitting in front of a screen.

You stay in charge of your phone

We hate being bombarded as much as you do, so the settings lean towards fewer texts, not more.

• Your distance. The storm text uses the same distance as your storm emails. Pick 25 km and a storm sitting 40 km away sends nothing. Many members are happier on 50 km than on 100.
• A daily limit. At most 1, 2, 3 or 5 texts a day. It starts at 3.
• Quiet nights, if you want them. Tick the box and nothing comes between 10pm and 6am. Leave it unticked if you would rather be woken for a closed crossing or a storm in middle of the night. Some people on the creek roads indeed want exactly that.
• A monthly allowance. Your membership includes 15 texts a month, starting again on the day of the month you joined. The card on your dashboard shows how many you used and when they start again.
• Stop any time. Reply STOP to any text, or click Remove my number on your dashboard. Within the hour the site switches your texts off too.

If you run out of texts in a wild month, the emails and push notifications carry on as normal. You are never left with nothing.

Your number stays your number

We know a mobile number is personal, so a few plain promises.

• We confirm the number with a 6 digit code before we send a single warning. Nobody can sign your number up for texts but you.
• Your number is only used for the warnings you ticked. We do not sell it or use it for marketing. The only other place it goes is the text message service that delivers our warnings.
• Our send records keep a member ID, not the phone number. If you remove your number, it is gone from your account.

Why texts are for paying members

Straight answer: every text we send costs us real money, every time, and storm season can mean a lot of texts. Email is close to free to send. SMS is not. Keeping texts with paid membership is what lets us send them without cutting corners, and it means your membership pays for something you will actually feel the day it counts.

Membership is $3.95 a month, or $39 a year, and both start with 7 days free. In that free week you get one warning text, so you can see it work on the next storm before you pay a cent. Once your first payment goes through, the full 15 texts a month start. Paid yearly, it works out to $3.25 a month. Paid monthly, it is about 13 cents a day.

And texts are only one part of it. Members also get the weather from our own station on Lyndhurst Hill (not Samford, not Brisbane), Daily Weather Essentials and the Farmer Daily Report in the inbox each morning, the 7 day solar outlook and the 5 year outlook. The membership page lists the lot.

Already a member? Switch it on in about a minute

Texts are off until you add your number, so nothing happens by itself. Here is the whole thing:

1. Log in at dayboro.au/come-in and click Go to Dashboard.
2. Open the Account tab and scroll to the bottom of the Storm warnings card, to SMS warnings.
3. Type your mobile in the 04xx xxx xxx form and click Send me a code.
4. Type the 6 digit code from the text and click Confirm my number. The code works for 10 minutes.
5. Tick the warnings you want, pick your daily limit, decide on quiet nights, and click Save SMS settings.

Or go straight to the Account section of your members dashboard, which is where the mobile number goes once you are logged in. Save the number the texts come from in your contacts as “Dayboro warnings”, so you know who it is when your phone buzzes. Every step, with pictures, is in chapter 15 of our user guide.

What texts cannot do

We would rather tell you the limits now than have you find out on a bad day.

• A text needs mobile coverage. In a real black spot it arrives when you are back in range, which may be too late. Know your own dead spots.
• The storm text follows lightning. Heavy rain without lightning will not trigger a storm text. That is what the Bureau and creek crossing texts are for, and on 22 October we also changed how our warnings page reacts to rain that is falling, written up in current conditions and warnings.
• We are a local weather service, not an emergency service. For a creek crossing on the day, council road closures and your own eyes come first. Never drive into flood water. In an emergency, call 000.

We will control how the texts behave over this storm season and adjust when the record says we should, the same way we wrote up the 22 October miss. If a text came too late, too early, or too often, tell us. That is how it gets better.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get Dayboro storm warnings by text message?

Yes, if you are a paying member. Add your mobile number on the Account tab of your Members Dashboard, confirm it with the 6 digit code, and choose storm, Bureau and creek crossing warnings.

How many texts will I get?

At most the daily limit you choose (1, 2, 3 or 5), and at most 15 a month. On a quiet week, none.

Does it cost extra?

No. The texts are included in membership, $3.95 a month or $39 a year, both with 7 days free. In the free week you get one warning text, then 15 a month once your first payment goes through.

How do I stop the texts?

Reply STOP to any of our texts, or click Remove my number on your dashboard.

The Dayboro team