# Weather Alerts Tracker (`gochujang/weather-alerts-tracker`) Actor

Track active severe weather alerts from NOAA National Weather Service: tornado warnings, hurricane watches, flood advisories, winter storms, and more. Filter by US state, county, event type, or severity. Uses NWS public API. No API key required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gochujang/weather-alerts-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Hojun Lee](https://apify.com/gochujang) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 item trackeds

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

## Weather Alerts Tracker

Track active severe weather alerts from NOAA National Weather Service: tornado warnings, hurricane watches, flood advisories, winter storms, and more. Filter by US state, county, event type, or severity. Uses NWS public API. No API key required.

### Features

- **Real-time NOAA/NWS data** — pulls directly from the official [api.weather.gov](https://api.weather.gov/) public API
- **No API key needed** — the NWS API is completely free and open
- **Filter by state** — monitor one state, a handful, or the entire US
- **Filter by event type** — e.g. `Tornado Warning`, `Hurricane Watch`, `Flash Flood Warning`
- **Filter by severity** — Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor
- **Active-only mode** — skip already-expired alerts automatically
- **PPE pricing** — pay only $0.001 per alert returned

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `states` | string\[] | US state abbreviations to monitor (e.g. `["TX", "FL"]`). Leave empty for all states. |
| `eventTypes` | string\[] | Event types to include (e.g. `["Tornado Warning", "Flash Flood Warning"]`). Leave empty for all. |
| `severity` | string\[] | Severity levels: `Extreme`, `Severe`, `Moderate`, `Minor`, `Unknown`. Leave empty for all. |
| `activeOnly` | boolean | Only return alerts that have not yet expired (default: `true`). |

#### Example Input

```json
{
  "states": ["TX", "OK", "KS"],
  "eventTypes": ["Tornado Warning", "Tornado Watch"],
  "severity": ["Extreme", "Severe"],
  "activeOnly": true
}
```

### Output

Each alert is saved to the Apify dataset with the following fields:

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `id` | Unique NWS alert identifier |
| `event` | Event type (e.g. "Tornado Warning") |
| `headline` | Short alert headline |
| `area_description` | Human-readable description of the affected area |
| `states_affected` | List of 2-letter state codes derived from UGC zone codes |
| `severity` | Severity level (Extreme/Severe/Moderate/Minor/Unknown) |
| `certainty` | Certainty of the event |
| `urgency` | Urgency level |
| `status` | Alert status (Actual/Exercise/System/Test/Draft) |
| `sent_at` | ISO 8601 timestamp when the alert was issued |
| `effective_at` | ISO 8601 timestamp when the alert becomes effective |
| `expires_at` | ISO 8601 timestamp when the alert expires |
| `description` | Full alert description (first 1,000 characters) |
| `instruction` | Recommended protective actions (first 500 characters) |
| `response_type` | Recommended response type |

#### Example Output

```json
{
  "id": "urn:oid:2.49.0.1.840.0.abc123",
  "event": "Tornado Warning",
  "headline": "Tornado Warning issued for Smith County until 6:45 PM CDT",
  "area_description": "Smith County in East Texas",
  "states_affected": ["TX"],
  "severity": "Extreme",
  "certainty": "Observed",
  "urgency": "Immediate",
  "status": "Actual",
  "sent_at": "2026-05-01T23:30:00-05:00",
  "effective_at": "2026-05-01T23:30:00-05:00",
  "expires_at": "2026-05-01T23:45:00-05:00",
  "description": "At 6:30 PM CDT, a confirmed tornado was located near...",
  "instruction": "TAKE COVER NOW! Move to a basement or an interior room...",
  "response_type": "Shelter"
}
```

### Use Cases

- **Emergency management** — monitor active alerts across specific jurisdictions
- **Travel & logistics** — check severe weather before dispatching routes
- **Insurance & risk** — assess real-time exposure in US states
- **News & media** — automated alert feed for weather journalists
- **Smart home / IoT** — trigger automations when warnings hit your area

### Data Source

All data comes from the [NOAA National Weather Service API](https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api), a US government public service. Data is real-time and updated continuously by NWS forecasters. No rate limits for reasonable use.

### Pricing

This Actor uses Pay-Per-Event pricing:

| Event | Price |
|-------|-------|
| Alert fetched | $0.001 per alert |

A nationwide sweep typically returns 50–500 alerts depending on current weather conditions. During major events (hurricanes, outbreak days) this can reach 1,000+.

### Technical Notes

- Up to 3 states: parallel API requests for speed
- 4+ states or empty: single nationwide `/alerts/active` request with client-side filtering
- Duplicate alerts from overlapping state fetches are automatically de-duplicated
- The NWS API requires a `User-Agent` header — this Actor sets it correctly

***

### Related actors

- [Energy Prices Tracker](https://apify.com/gochujang/energy-prices-tracker) — WTI crude and natural gas prices that correlate with weather-driven energy demand spikes
- [NOAA/EIA Energy Data](https://apify.com/gochujang/eia-energy-data) — Natural gas and electricity supply data affected by severe weather events in this actor
- [OSM Geocoder](https://apify.com/gochujang/osm-geocoder) — Geocode affected areas to map alert zones onto geographic coordinates

### Feedback

If this actor helps your weather monitoring, a review helps others find it: [Leave a review on Apify Store](https://apify.com/gochujang/weather-alerts-tracker#reviews)

# Actor input Schema

## `states` (type: `array`):

US state abbreviations to monitor (e.g. \['TX', 'FL', 'CA']). Leave empty for all states.

## `eventTypes` (type: `array`):

Filter by specific event types (e.g. \['Tornado Warning', 'Hurricane Watch', 'Flash Flood Warning']). Leave empty for all types.

## `severity` (type: `array`):

Filter by severity levels. Allowed values: Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor, Unknown. Leave empty for all.

## `activeOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only return currently active alerts (not yet expired)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "activeOnly": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gochujang/weather-alerts-tracker").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gochujang/weather-alerts-tracker").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 '{}' |
apify call gochujang/weather-alerts-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/2kmfA8zbbXPj5QhhN/builds/QhgOEUGG9ywGLhxer/openapi.json