Weather Alerts Setup
Set it up once. Tornado warnings, flash floods, and hurricane updates land on your phone automatically.
Pick your phone
Step 1 — Government emergency alerts
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Settings → Notifications → Government Alerts
Settings → Notifications → scroll to the bottom → Government Alerts.
- 2
Turn ON: Public Safety Alerts
Statewide emergencies — gas leaks, train derailments.
- 3
Turn ON: Emergency Alerts
AMBER alerts and tornado warnings. Loud sound by default — leave it on.
- 4
Turn ON: Test Alerts
Optional. The first Wednesday of each month is a quiet test.
Step 2 — Weather app alerts
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Open Weather (the built-in iPhone app)
Should already be installed. White cloud icon.
- 2
Tap the menu (three lines, top-left) → tap your location
Make sure your home is set as the primary location.
- 3
Tap the bell icon to enable severe weather alerts
Now Apple Weather pushes you a notification when severe weather is forecast for that location.
- 4
Add other locations — daughter's house, vacation cabin
Tap "+" → search city. The app sends alerts for any of them.
Step 3 — Specialized apps and radios
NOAA Weather Radio (free, official)
Federal real-time radio updates. Works through a small handheld weather radio (about $30 at hardware stores) — important when cell service is down.
- •Battery-powered. Stays on during power outages.
- •Required equipment for tornado- and hurricane-prone areas.
FEMA app
Federal alerts plus shelter locator and disaster resources. Free.
- •Built-in checklist for hurricane, fire, earthquake prep.
- •Shows nearby Red Cross shelters during emergencies.
Watch Duty (wildfires)
Free non-profit app with wildfire alerts curated by retired firefighters and dispatchers. Best in CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, NV, AZ, CO.
- •Only for wildfires.
- •Real human dispatchers verify each alert before sending. Faster than government channels.
If you live in a tornado, hurricane, or wildfire area
A $30 hand-crank weather radio (Midland WR-120 or similar) is the smartest spend in tech you will make. Cell towers fail in disasters. Radio frequencies do not.
A note on alert fatigue
Some areas get a LOT of weather alerts. If your phone is buzzing daily, you can mute "Hourly Forecasts" in Apple Weather (Notifications → Weather → tone down) without losing the severe ones. The severe alerts have their own special tone — keep those loud.