Notification Settings For Tornado Alerts

John_Shelburne · May 19, 2025, 6:41pm

Tornados - iPhone Notification Settings

Missing a critical weather alert, such as a tornado warning, can be life-threatening. Fortunately, your iPhone is equipped with robust notification settings designed to keep you informed. However, if not configured correctly, you might miss vital alerts. This guide outlines the key settings to ensure you receive every emergency notification when it matters most.

Understanding iPhone’s Emergency and Weather Alerts

Government Alerts (System-Level Emergency Notifications):

• Where to Find: Settings > Notifications (scroll to the bottom)
•
• Types of Alerts:
•
• - Amber Alerts: For child abduction cases
• - Emergency Alerts: For imminent threats like tornado warnings
• - Public Safety Alerts: Cautionary advisories like boil water notices
• - Test Alerts: System tests (optional)

Key Tip: Make sure all are switched ON to never miss critical notifications.

Weather App Notifications:

• Location: Settings > Notifications > Weather
• Settings to Enable:
• - Critical Alerts: Overrides Focus and Silent modes ()
• - Time-Sensitive Notifications: Delivers high-priority alerts promptly
• - Severe Weather Notifications: Enable for your current location within the Weather app

Heads-Up: The Weather app might not cover all severe weather types or locations, so relying solely on it isn’t foolproof.

Tornado Watch vs. Tornado Warning

•	- Tornado Watch: Conditions are favorable for tornadoes (Public Safety Alert)
•	- Tornado Warning: A tornado has been spotted or detected (Emergency Alert)

Emergency Alerts and Public Safety Alerts are two different types of alerts that serve different purposes.

Emergency Alerts are issued to inform people of immediate threats to life or safety, such as tornado warnings or AMBER Alerts. They are usually not customizable and are typically turned on by default.

Public Safety Alerts, on the other hand, are less urgent safety advisories, such as boil water notices or road hazards. They are customizable and can be turned on or off.

To ensure you receive tornado warnings, follow these steps:

•	1. Activate all government alerts: Go to Settings > Notifications and turn on AMBER Alerts, Emergency Alerts, and Public Safety Alerts.
•	2. Enable weather app critical alerts: Go to Settings > Notifications > Weather and turn on “Critical Alerts” and “Time Sensitive Notifications.”

Verify location settings: Ensure that Location Services are turned on for accurate alerts.

• For maximum safety, it’s recommended to keep Emergency Alerts and Public Safety Alerts turned on, enable Severe Weather Notifications in the Weather app, and ensure that Location Services are active.

NiKoBeaR · May 20, 2025, 4:46am

This is actually not entirely accurate.

• - Emergency Alerts: For imminent threats like tornado warnings

Emergency Alerts are also used for silver alerts (missing elderly/vulnerable person) where I live. It’s fucking bullshit because it scares the shit out of people, wakes up night shift staff, and encourages them to turn off the alerts for when a real emergency/disaster hits.

John_Shelburne · May 24, 2025, 2:20pm

The insane part about these alerts is that they are individuals in offices pressing the alert button.

Here is perplexity overview:
Emergency alerts and public safety alerts on your phone originate from authorized government officials at federal, state, or local agencies. Here’s how the system works, and how incidents like the Hawaii false missile alert happened:

Who Creates and Sends Emergency and Public Safety Alerts?

Authorized Government Officials:
Alerts are created and sent by trained personnel at agencies such as the National Weather Service, local emergency management offices, state emergency management agencies, or federal authorities. These officials use secure systems to compose and issue alerts in real time[2][5][7].
Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS):
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintains IPAWS, which is the gateway through which these officials send alerts. IPAWS distributes the alerts to various platforms, including the Emergency Alert System (EAS) for TV/radio and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) for cell phones[2][6][7].
Cell Phone Carriers:
Carriers are responsible only for delivering the alerts to your device once they receive them from the government’s alerting system. They do not create or authorize the content of the alerts[5][6].

The Hawaii False Missile Alert: A Real Example

On January 13, 2018, a state employee at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency accidentally sent a missile alert to the public by pressing the wrong button during a drill. This alert was distributed through the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts, reaching phones, TVs, and radios across Hawaii[3][4]. The incident was entirely due to human error at a government office—not a carrier issue. The state and federal government investigated the mistake and made changes to prevent a recurrence[3][4].

Summary Table

Step	Who Is Responsible?
Creating the alert	Authorized government official (person)
Sending the alert	Government agency via IPAWS
Delivering the alert	Cell phone carrier, TV, radio broadcasters

In summary:
Actual people at government agencies are responsible for composing and sending emergency and public safety alerts. Cell phone carriers and broadcasters simply deliver these alerts to the public. The Hawaii incident shows that human error at a government office can have major consequences, which is why robust safeguards and training are critical in the alerting process[3][4].