Welcome to the site. Many regular radios have a weather capability. You can also get radios dedicated to weather channels that will scan and give you a "weather warning". Usually one frequency in an area is given to weather alerts. In my opinion you don't need to dedicate funds to a radio just to listen for weather alerts unless you are in tornado alley or somewhere similar.

Hello J124 and welcome to the forum.

If you are looking for a radio you can't go wrong with a good crank radio. You will not have to worry so much about batteries and most of them incorporate some form of LED light and many can also be used to charge your cell phone. Now many of them have the weather channels so that you can listen to relatively accurate Environment Canada's forecasts just about anywhere you are likely to find yourself in Canada, in English and in French. They are invaluable in the winter if you are travelling.

I also have a dedicated weather radio. Mine is made by Midland it is a one step process to get the forecast and it also has a text display. Weather radios are the only "push" system with the NOAA all hazards alert that are available in Canada. If you set them to do so they will sound the alarm if a severe weather bulletin is issued. This could be severe thunderstorms, wind storms, winter storms, heavy rainfall warnings, flash freezes and tornadoes of course. In other words any event that can cause damage to property or present a danger to life. There are two types of severe weather alerts, watches and warnings. A warming is the most severe meaning that the severe weather is happening or about to happen in your area. I like mine and it is well worth the $49 cost. It has been very handy so far. The link below will take you to the Midland web site and its desktop consumer weather radios.

http://www.midlandradio.com/Desktops-Weather.OCS

You can also sign up with Environment Canada to get email warnings of severe weather bulletins.
Hope that helps.

I like this one:

Eton FR600

http://www.etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=921410

Why I like it:

-3 ways to power it: solar, crank, batteries
- S.A.M.E. - you get localized weather alerts

Sima has a nice one available seen here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eSp77j9Pfc
Can get a list of Dealers in Canada if anyone wants.