About AlertWatch World

Official alerts, made easier to understand

AlertWatch World is an independent public-information project designed to make official alert information easier to discover, compare, and understand.

The first operational AlertWatch World service is Weather, which brings together available weather-alert information from official U.S., Canadian, and international sources into one map and dashboard.

AlertWatch World does not issue warnings and is not an emergency service. The original issuing authority remains the authoritative source for its alerts, instructions, updates, and cancellations.

Why AlertWatch World exists

Official warnings are published by many different organizations and in many different formats.

A visitor trying to understand weather-alert activity across regions or countries may need to consult several separate government or meteorological websites.

AlertWatch World aims to make that information easier to explore through a common interface while preserving the distinction between the authority that issued the warning and AlertWatch World’s presentation of that information.

The goal is not to replace official warning services. It is to make available official alert information easier to find and interpret at a glance.

An independent project

AlertWatch World is an independent project.

It is not operated by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the U.S. National Weather Service, NOAA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of Canada, the World Meteorological Organization, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet, or the individual authorities whose warning information may appear on the site.

Those organizations and services are identified because they provide source information, mapping resources, or software used by AlertWatch World.

Their inclusion does not imply sponsorship or endorsement.

What AlertWatch World does

AlertWatch World collects available alert information through automated source pipelines and converts selected information into a common publication format.

The Weather service currently brings together:

U.S. National Weather Service alerts;
Environment and Climate Change Canada land alerts;
selected Environment and Climate Change Canada Marine warnings; and
international warning records available through WMO/SWIC.

Current data sources and their roles are described on the Sources page.

AlertWatch also applies validation, normalization, geographic processing, classification, and display rules so that records from different warning systems can be presented through one interface.

What AlertWatch World does not do

AlertWatch World does not independently issue, approve, verify, or cancel official weather warnings.

It does not guarantee complete global coverage, uninterrupted source availability, perfect geographic representation, or that every displayed record has been independently confirmed as an ongoing hazard.

AlertWatch is also not a replacement for emergency-management agencies, meteorological services, public-safety organizations, or local authorities.

For decisions involving personal safety, evacuation, travel, marine activity, or severe-weather preparation, users should follow the applicable official authority.

Transparency matters

AlertWatch World is designed around the idea that users should be able to understand not only what is being displayed, but also where the information came from, how it was processed, what the limitations are, and when the publication was last updated.

That is why AlertWatch publishes separate pages explaining its Sources, Methodology, How It Works process, privacy practices, terms, and limitations.

The project also distinguishes publication freshness from the status of individual hazards. A recently generated AlertWatch dataset does not mean that every record in it was issued recently or independently verified by AlertWatch.

Coverage can vary

Weather warning systems differ substantially among countries and issuing authorities.

Some sources provide detailed geometry and structured severity information. Others provide different fields, formats, languages, or lifecycle information.

Coverage may also be interrupted by source outages, network failures, data-format changes, or processing problems.

The absence of a displayed alert does not prove that an area is safe or that AlertWatch World has complete coverage.

Country alert totals also should not be interpreted as rankings of relative danger.

Corrections and improvements

AlertWatch World’s processing and presentation may change as source systems evolve, new edge cases are identified, or more reliable techniques become available.

Where appropriate, AlertWatch may correct its own presentation, classification, grouping, geographic processing, or explanatory material.

AlertWatch cannot alter the original warning issued by an external authority.

Questions about the underlying official warning itself should normally be directed to the issuing authority.

Questions about how AlertWatch World displays or processes information can be sent through the Contact page.

Original AlertWatch World material

This does not claim ownership of government data, official warning records, third-party map data, third-party software, or other material belonging to its respective rights holder.

Source-specific attribution and licensing information is described on the Sources page.

Looking ahead

Weather is the first operational service within the broader AlertWatch World platform.

Additional alert categories may be considered in the future, but AlertWatch World does not present unavailable future services as though they already exist.

New modules will be added only when they have usable data sources, clear methodology, and an appropriate public interface.