You know the noise - that irritating sound that emanates from your cell phone and on radio and TV whenever there's a perceived weather emergency in your area. It's a potential lifesaver that goes off in your area when a storm or a tornado is heading towards you.

But what happens when they just keep coming and they're for areas you're nowhere near? That's the basis of a probe by the CRTC into Telus, Bell and Rogers about more than a hundred alert requests, some of which went out, that drove Winnipeg citizens crazy on one day this summer. Residents began receiving at least 16 or 17 tornado warnings for places that were nowhere near the city. And they wouldn't stop. 

The warnings are put out by Pelmorex, owner of the Weather Network, and they're part of the Emergency Alert System set up by the government. But officials fear having too many of them in too rapid a succession will tend to make people either not believe them or just ignore them altogether when it really matters.

How bad was it? On June 9th, Rogers says it received an unprecedented 133 alert requests in a single day, while trying to follow the rules laid down by the CRTC.

The Commission has asked for explanations from all the parties involved and promises to publish the results of its probe on its website. If you've ever gotten that warning for a place you're not near, this could be an eye-opening investigation that hopefully fixes the issue once and for all.

Rogers, Telus deny blame for June twister alert barrage