Support

For WeatherSafeAlerts on iPhone.

Contact

Write to john@jjlarson.com. Say which iPhone and iOS version you have, and what you expected to happen. Please do not send your address or exact location; the app never needs it to find a problem.

This address is for help with the app. It is not watched around the clock and cannot pass on warnings. If weather is threatening you now, follow your local weather service and local authorities.

I am not getting alerts

1. Open the app. If alerts are offline or the last check was a while ago, a banner at the top says so and offers a fix.
2. In iPhone Settings, Notifications, WeatherSafeAlerts, make sure notifications are allowed. If you use a Focus, allow Time Sensitive notifications for the app.
3. In the app, check that the place you care about has alerts turned on, and which kinds of alerts you chose for it.
4. Leave Background App Refresh on for the app. It lets the app renew its record with our server. A record that is not renewed for about 30 days is removed, and opening the app sets it up again.

Even with everything set correctly, an alert can be late or not arrive. When the weather service's data is slow, alerts issued for whole forecast zones, such as most watches, can reach a place a little later than warnings drawn as an outline, such as tornado warnings. Keep a second way to hear warnings, like a weather radio.

What the four labels mean

The word at the start of each alert always tells you which it is. The badge shape and color back it up; Heads up and All clear share the same ring and differ by color (teal or gray) and by word.

• Heads up (teal ring): possible later; nothing to do yet.
• Get ready (outlined triangle): likely soon; make a plan now.
• Act now (filled square): happening or about to; do the thing.
• All clear (gray ring, with the picture of the warning that ended): an ended warning gets an All clear only when nothing else is active for that place. If something is still active, you get an update naming it.

How accurate are nearby-storm alerts?

Nearby-storm alerts are the app's own estimates of how far a storm is and when it may arrive, worked out from weather service warnings. They can be wrong. Follow the weather service's warning itself for what to do.

Alerts that sound when the phone is silenced

Some warnings, such as a tornado warning, can be set to break through silent mode and Do Not Disturb. This uses Apple's Critical Alerts, which Apple has to approve for the app, and which you can turn off in the app or in iPhone Settings. Until Apple approves it, these warnings arrive as Time Sensitive notifications, which follow your silent switch.

Does this replace the alerts my iPhone already gets?

No. The government alerts your iPhone receives on its own, such as Wireless Emergency Alerts (Settings, Notifications, Government Alerts), are separate from this app. Leave them on. WeatherSafeAlerts adds warnings for the places you choose, including places you are not in right now.

Does it cost anything?

No. WeatherSafeAlerts is free. No ads. No account.

Deleting your data

In the app, open Settings and choose Delete my data. It removes your record from our server and erases the app's keys, places and history on your phone. The privacy policy lists exactly what is removed. If you have already deleted the app, the server record expires on its own about 30 days after the app last checked in, apart from a small sign-in key that is kept for up to 400 days so the phone can register again. The privacy policy explains it.

Where the warnings come from

From the National Weather Service and NOAA. WeatherSafeAlerts passes their warnings along; it does not write its own forecasts. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Weather Service, NOAA or FEMA.