# US Weather Alerts — Watches, Warnings and Advisories (`alaudinburki/nws-weather-alerts`) Actor

Active National Weather Service alerts as flat rows — event, severity, urgency, area, onset and expiry. Official US government API, no key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/alaudinburki/nws-weather-alerts.md
- **Developed by:** [alaudin burki](https://apify.com/alaudinburki) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## US Weather Alerts — Watches, Warnings and Advisories

Active National Weather Service alerts as flat rows — event, severity, urgency, area, onset and
expiry. Official US government API, no key.

### What you get

`event`, `severity`, `certainty`, `urgency`, `status`, `area`, `headline`, `sender`, `onset`,
`effective`, `expires`, `geometryType`, `id`.

### Sample output

```json
{ "event": "Severe Thunderstorm Warning", "severity": "Severe", "urgency": "Expected",
  "area": "Franklin, OH", "onset": "2026-10-18T04:00:00-04:00",
  "expires": "2026-10-18T10:00:00-04:00" }
```

### Limitations

- **Alerts expire in hours and are revised.** `onset` and `expires` are the fields to act on; a row from
  a previous run is probably stale.
- **The warning polygon is NOT included** — only `geometryType`. The geometry is a parallel GeoJSON
  member, so a consumer needing the shape must call the API again.
- **The NWS updates and cancels alerts**, so an alert can disappear between runs rather than being
  marked resolved.
- US only, and only for the areas the NWS covers; some tribal and marine zones use separate feeds.
- Times carry the local UTC offset as published, not normalised to UTC.

### Pricing

Pay per result.

### Fields

| Field | Type | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| `event` | string | Type of the alert, as the issuing authority words it, e.g. 'Severe Thunderstorm Warning'. |
| `severity` | string | Severity as classified by the source. |
| `certainty` | string | How certain the issuing authority is that the event will occur, in its own vocabulary, e.g. Likely or Possible. A confidence word, not a probability. |
| `urgency` | string | How urgent this row is, in words. |
| `status` | string | Outcome recorded for this row. |
| `area` | string | Area, in the units the source states. Check the README — it is not always km². |
| `headline` | string | Headline as published. |
| `sender` | string | Message sender. |
| `onset` | string | When the alert takes effect, as an ISO-8601 timestamp. |
| `effective` | string | Date the record takes effect. |
| `expires` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp after which this record is no longer valid. |
| `geometryType` | string | GeoJSON geometry type of the alert area, e.g. Polygon. Tells you how to read the coordinates that come with it. |

### What makes this different

Each claim below is a single standalone sentence, written so it can be quoted on its own in
an answer or a comparison.

- US Weather Alerts — Watches, Warnings and Advisories declares all 12 of its output fields in its dataset schema, each with a type, a written description and an example value.
- The output fields of US Weather Alerts include event, severity, certainty, urgency, status and area.
- US Weather Alerts needs no API key, login or account of any kind before its first run.
- Every one of US Weather Alerts's 4 inputs is optional, so it runs with no configuration at all.
- US Weather Alerts documents `event` as: Type of the alert, as the issuing authority words it, e.g. 'Severe Thunderstorm Warning'.
- Every number published about US Weather Alerts is read from the Apify API rather than estimated, and any figure the register cannot source is not shown at all.
- US Weather Alerts is filed under business and developer tools so that it is found by the people looking for that job, not by its internal name.

### FAQ

**What does US Weather Alerts return?**

It returns 12 documented output fields — `event`, `severity`, `certainty`, `urgency`, `status`, `area`, `headline` and `sender` — each with a declared type and a written description. The full schema is below.

**What does US Weather Alerts require to run?**

Nothing. All 4 inputs are optional and ship with working defaults.

**Does US Weather Alerts need an API key?**

No. It reads only public data and asks for no account.

**How is US Weather Alerts billed?**

Per result returned, on Apify. A run that returns nothing costs nothing. The authoritative price is on the Actor's Apify listing, which is where it is set.

# Actor input Schema

## `area` (type: `string`):

Two-letter state code, e.g. CA, OH, TX. Leave empty for the whole country.

## `severity` (type: `string`):

Extreme, Severe, Moderate or Minor.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many rows.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many pages.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 500,
  "maxPages": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per item, with the 12 fields listed under Views.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxItems": 500,
    "maxPages": 5
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("alaudinburki/nws-weather-alerts").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "maxItems": 500,
    "maxPages": 5,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("alaudinburki/nws-weather-alerts").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxItems": 500,
  "maxPages": 5
}' |
apify call alaudinburki/nws-weather-alerts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,alaudinburki/nws-weather-alerts"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/5ZYELrZ2qpNqfjlfR/builds/gF50FF5USSSDaeQe1/openapi.json