NOAA Alerts Weather is a handy little app with a big job: alerting you to weather warnings, weather watches and hurricane warnings as soon as they are issued.
No longer do you have to wait for mom or grandma to call and tell you what they heard on their little car radio. This app gives you push notification for all alerts and watches published by the National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
Navigating the NOAA Alerts Weather App
Let’s say you just downloaded this app and opened it up. Then, right after the splash screen you come up against long list simply titled “list”. This can be disconcerting if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Don’t panic, though, it’s actually right where you want to be.
Those first part of your list is quick links to alerts for marine zones. Click on “Atlantic Marine Zones”, for instance, and you’ll see all the general info for that area. First up is a summary, timestamped and signed. With the alert you also get info on category, urgency, and expiration dates.
States and Favorites: The Heart of the App
Back on the front page, scroll down to find the list of states and choose your own. Once you’ve selected ‘counties’ you’ll get a list of every county in your state. Each name has a star beside it, and clicking on that star is an easy way to put it in your favorites list.
Click on the name, and you get the latest weather watches or alerts for your county. If there aren’t any recent alerts, the app will tell you this. Gaps in data reflect gaps in NOAA and NCEP data, not the app.
My favorite part of the app is the favorite list, which is populated by whichever counties you’ve selected. On the ‘favorite’ screen, use the handy slider to choose which of your counties you want to receive push notifications for. Then you’ll get notifications straight to the lock screen of your phone, even when your app is closed, whenever the NOAA or NCEP send out a weather warning or alert for your area.
The free version allows you to choose one county to receive push notifications for. If you’d like to keep up to date with multiple areas, though, all you need to do is upgrade to a premium subscription.
Summing It Up
That’s the heart of this little app. You might prefer something else for your daily weather check– maybe an app like NOAA Live Sky Weather Aviation if you’re into flying, or Marine Buoys if you’re all about the sea. But for handy, no hassle weather reports, this little app can’t be beat. Download it, set it up, and you can forget about it– till it pops up on your notification screen with an important warning you needed to see.
