NWWS-OI
An XMPP stream the Weather Service pushes to, the instant a forecaster issues a product.
A minute matters more than you think.
A tornado on the ground covers about half a mile in the time it takes most weather apps to notice a warning has been issued. WxAlerts hears it first, then actually wakes you.
No card. Every National Weather Service alert, on the free plan, forever.
We checked. The feed most apps use finished last.
Three sources carry the same National Weather Service products. We take all three and send whichever arrives first. The public web API, which is what most weather apps poll, is the slowest of the three by about a minute.
This is not a benchmark we ran once on a good day. It is measured continuously from our own arrival receipts, and the figures below are whatever the last 24 hours actually say, refreshed while you read.
Loading the last 24 hours...
Only hazards that at least two feeds carried are raced. A feed that alone carried a product did not win it, and counting that as a win is exactly the arithmetic that makes a slow feed look fast. Full method onthe status page.
Most apps ask. We listen on three lines at once.
A weather app usually polls one public website on a timer, so it is never faster than that timer. We hold three independent connections to the National Weather Service at the same time, including a satellite dish on our own roof, and forward whichever one gets there first.
It means the fast path is the normal path rather than the lucky one. It also means that when one source stops, you do not find out during a tornado.
EMWIN by satellite
Broadcast from GOES and received on our own dish. It does not touch the public internet, so it survives what the internet does not.
api.weather.gov
The public web API, polled on a timer. We keep it as a third opinion, not as the source of record.
NWWS-OIXMPP, pushed at issuance
EMWINGOES satellite, our own dish
api.weather.govPublic web API, polled on a timer
Your alertWhichever got here first
An alert you sleep through is not an alert.
Being first is worth nothing if the warning lands on a muted phone on the other side of the room. Pick how it reaches you, and make it ring.
Push
Instant, free, and silent at 2am unless you say otherwise.
For the record, and for anybody who reads their inbox before their texts.
Text
Arrives with no app installed and no data connection.
Phone call
Gets through Do Not Disturb. Reaches a landline. Wakes people a buzz does not.
Webhook
A signed POST to your own code, for a siren, a sign or a shutdown.
One tornado warning, as it arrives.
The phone call is the one worth paying attention to. It gets through Do Not Disturb, it reaches a landline, and the people most at risk in a tornado are often the ones who still have one.
Nothing here is written for this page. Every line is the output of the same three functions that composed the last warning we sent, which is also why the text is short and the call repeats itself.
WxAlertsTornado WarningHome until 0230Z. Tornado Warning issued April 14 at 9:02PM CDT by NWS Fort Worth TX.
Incoming callWX Alerts.orgSevere weather warning
Text message
WxAlerts: Tornado Warning for Home until 0230Z. Reply STOP to cancel.
One segment, 69 characters. No app, no data connection.What the call says
This is a weather alert from WX Alerts dot org. Tornado Warning for Home. Take shelter now. Again. Tornado Warning for Home. Take shelter now.
It repeats, because the first seconds of a call are spent working out what it is.The confirmation call when you add a number is also how ours gets saved in your phone. Carrier caller ID often shows no name at all, and an unnamed automated call at 2am is the one people hang up on.
Wake me for a tornado. Do not wake me for rain.
Every channel gets its own rule on every place you save. The fastest alert in the world is worth nothing once you have muted it because it cried wolf, so the loud channels stay reserved for the hazards that earn them.
Set yours upHome
PushEmailTextCallTornado WarningTake shelter nowTornado Warning: Push yesTornado Warning: Email yesTornado Warning: Text yesTornado Warning: Call yesSevere Thunderstorm WarningAct, but it is not a tornadoSevere Thunderstorm Warning: Push yesSevere Thunderstorm Warning: Email yesSevere Thunderstorm Warning: Text yesSevere Thunderstorm Warning: Call noFlood AdvisoryWorth knowing, not worth waking forFlood Advisory: Push yesFlood Advisory: Email noFlood Advisory: Text noFlood Advisory: Call no
What we will not tell you.
We relay the National Weather Service faster than the sources most apps use. We do not issue warnings, we cannot see everything, and being early to a storm is not the same as being early to your street. One storm we tracked traveled 168 km between our alert and its tornado.
Anyone promising certainty about a tornado is selling you something. We would rather publish the measurements, including the ones that are unflattering, and let you decide.
This isn't a trial. This is free, for life.
Every National Weather Service alert, the live map, the apps, push, email and webhooks: free, with no card and no expiry. A plan buys more addresses to watch and more people to wake, and covers the one channel that costs us real money every time it fires.
Everything that costs us nothing
One saved place, push, email and webhooks, with per-channel rules. No card, and no expiry on any of it.
Start freeFrom $9.99 a month
More places, more people at each of them, and text messages, which carry a real carrier cost every time one goes out. Phone calls are included on every paid plan.
See the plans$14.99 a year
The one thing you can buy on its own, because on free there is no subscription to fold it into. Comparable services charge $15 to $40 a year.