Severe Weather Alerts
Support Page
If you receive, or are interested in receiving Early Warning Network's Severe Weather Alerts and have questions, you'll find all the answers here
Who can receive SMS Alerts?
SMS alerts remain the most reliable type of alert as they do not require an internet connection. These are sent provided the registration belongs to one of these groups:
- Resident of a council sponsored area (refer to main sponsored area section)
- Employee of an EWN client
- A volunteer with the SES, rural fire service etc
- Resident of the Northern Territory
- Have an EWN Premium subscription
- A new member on a trial
Alert Filtering
Alerts sent by EWN are NOT automated - our alert managers check all content, and filter out duplicate warnings.
Alerts may be sent at any time of the day or night. However we do try to limit alerts sent between the hours of 10pm and 6am unless it is a serious situation. Severe Weather Warnings issued by the BoM during late evening or pre-dawn may be delayed until morning if there is a long lead-in time before the severe weather is expected.
Threat Levels
Threat levels are applied to alerts to indicate the severity of a threat at a glance.
| Threat Level | Summary of Threat | Example Alert Types at this Threat Level |
|---|---|---|
|
RED |
Extreme threats where damage or destruction to property is likely, along with risk to personal safety. |
Category 2 to 5 Tropical Cyclones Severe Thunderstorm Warnings with destructive winds, giant hail, intense rainfall or tornadoes Severe Weather Warnings with destructive winds or intense rainfall Bushfire Emergency Warning Fire Weather Warnings of Catastrophic Fire Danger Major Flood Warnings Tsunami threats where land inundation is likely
|
|
AMBER / ORANGE |
Severe threats which may pose a threat to property or personal safety. |
Category 1 Tropical Cyclones and Tropical Lows Severe Thunderstorm Warnings Radar derived large hail alerts Severe Weather Warnings Bushfire Watch and Act Fire Weather Warnings of Extreme Fire Danger Flood Watches Moderate Flood Warnings Tsunami threats where land inundation is possible |
|
YELLOW |
Very High threats which may present a risk. |
Minor or Final Flood Warnings Bushfire Advices Fire Weather Warnings of High Fire Danger |
Alert Types
The aim of our service is to deliver a timely alert when a severe thunderstorm is near or approaching your registered address. A constant watch is kept on BoM warnings, radar and our observation network to achieve this. However, thunderstorm weather is ever-changing and it is not possible to cover all scenarios. Radar images or warning products can be late, and thunderstorms can and do form and dissipate very quickly at times. It is important to accept that it is almost impossible to alert everyone on time during thunderstorm weather. Additionally, many adjacent areas may get an alert but not experience a thunderstorm.
Often the BoM warnings are not issued until some severe weather has already occurred or been observed. This is quite often the case for heavy rain warnings. Keep in mind creeks and streams may continue to rise and roads become cut after the heavy rain has eased or even stopped.
Intense low pressure systems and troughs (elongated areas of low pressure) may lead to warnings for phenomena such as:
Hazardous Winds, Damaging Winds and Heavy Rain, Heavy Rain and Flash Flooding, Localised Damaging Winds, Destructive Winds, Heavy Rain, Heavy Rain and Possible Flooding, Blizzard Conditions
EWN will issue Email, App Push Notifications and SMS alerts (and Landline alerts in some areas) for these events. There is often a lengthy lead-in time before any severe weather occurs. This does provide plenty of time to prepare, though it also means some events may fail to actually become as severe as forecast due to the weather patterns being less intense or focusing into another region.
Alerts will only be sent by EWN for Flood Warnings as the event unfolds if there is an arrangement with a client or local government area. The community is often very aware of areas prone to flooding and are advised to monitor the Bureau of Meteorology's flood pages and warnings page once they receive the flood watch or severe weather warning about heavy rainfall. Alternatively listen to local radio. Regularly updated river height and rainfall data is available that does not suit the alerting process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Currently, the EWN Severe Weather Alerts cover the following events:
- Severe thunderstorm warnings
- Severe weather warnings
- Flood watches
- Tropical cyclone watches and warnings
- Tsunami warnings & fire weather warnings sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)
- Bushfire watch & act and emergency warnings from state-base bushfire responders
Please read the Early Warning Network Alerts section on this page for full details including information about Threat Levels applied to alerts.
Typically yes, though an email-only severe thunderstorm forecast may be issued for days when widespread severe thunderstorm activity is expected but is yet to develop. Email, App Push Notifications and SMS Alerts will be sent if warnings are issued by the BoM.
Yes, please refer to our commercial services pages and in particular EWN Regional Alerts.
Yes, please visit the Alerts Page.
No. If you have received any alerts that are for another part of the country there is a problem with the geocoding (assigning of a latitude and longitude) of your address.
If you use (or in the past tried) our iPhone or Android apps, the wrong alerts may be related to a location you visited that has not updated. Please email support so we can fix the problem, or advise a solution.
- Your email address was entered with a typographical error during registration
- Your street address was not able to be geocoded into a latitude and longitude by Google Maps or your address details were incomplete
- Your email address has changed since you first registered
- Email alerts sent to you that are bouncing back to us with a "mailbox full", "spam", "account closed/disabled" or other errors may be disabled without notice. This will also stop SMS and landline alerts.
Please email support including your mobile phone number and address and we'll investigate.
WaterNSW and Seqwater provide free flood and water release notifications for their dams using the EWN system.
Current WaterNSW alerts can be viewed on the Dam Notifications page.
Email EWN Support to request an unsubscribe. If your email address has changed since subscribing, please advise the email address or phone number receiving alerts from EWN. If you do not have an email account, phone EWN on 02 6674 5717 during normal business hours to be unsubscribed.
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